TW201616595A - Vacuum lock system and substrate processing method - Google Patents

Abstract

A vacuum lock system for conveying substrates comprises a chamber body, a substrate holding assembly and an elevating mechanism. The chamber body includes a first chamber and a second chamber. The sidewall of the second chamber is formed with two openings selectively connected to atmosphere environment or vacuum environment. The first chamber proforms plasma processing on substrates therein. The substrate holding assembly is set in the chamber body and includes a separation board and a first and a second supporting elements for sustaining the substrates. The elevating mechanism drives the substrate holding assembly to move between a first position and a second position. The first position is a position where a bottom opening of the first chamber is sealed by the separation board, the first supporting element is set in the first chamber and the second supporting element corresponds to the two openings of the sidewall of the second chamber; the second position is a position where the first supporting element corresponds to the two openings. The present invention can increase the efficiency of substrate processing, and reduce the operation burden on robots.

Description

Vacuum lock system and substrate processing method

The present invention relates to a semiconductor processing apparatus and method, and more particularly to a vacuum lock system and a substrate processing method.

In the manufacturing process of a semiconductor element, a specific process such as thin film deposition, etching, oxidation or nitridation, heat treatment, or the like is performed on a semiconductor wafer as a substrate to be processed in a vacuum environment using various vacuum processing chambers. The transfer of the semiconductor wafer to the vacuum processing chamber from the outside is usually performed by a load lock device that switches the internal pressure between the atmospheric pressure state and the vacuum state. Typically, the load lock device is disposed between the vacuum transfer chamber and the exterior of the atmospheric environment, such as a wafer cassette or factory interface. The vacuum transfer chamber is coupled to each of the vacuum processing chambers to form an integrated vacuum processing device with which the wafer can be transferred to the various vacuum processing chambers. When the load lock device is switched to the atmospheric pressure state, the wafer from the atmospheric pressure environment is carried into the load lock device, and then the load lock device is switched to the vacuum state, and the wafer therein is transferred to the vacuum transfer chamber.

In order to further improve the efficiency of the load lock device, a load lock device having both wafer processing and wafer transfer functions has been proposed in the prior art. If a plasma processing chamber is disposed above the load lock device to complete a process such as photoresist removal on the substrate, the etched substrate is transferred from the vacuum etching processing chamber to the plasma processing chamber above the load lock device by a vacuum robot. The chamber is subjected to a heat treatment process to remove surface-deposited halogen residues or photoresist. The plasma processing chamber is then vented to atmospheric pressure so that the pressure therein is commensurate with the pressure of the factory interface, and the wafer after removal of the halogen residue or photoresist residue is transferred to the wafer interface FOUP of the factory interface by the robot.

Although the load lock device further improves the utilization efficiency, the robot manipulator has to carry out the substrate transfer to the load lock device and the plasma processing chamber of different heights, which undoubtedly imposes a burden on the movement of the robot, and therefore requires Such load lock devices have been modified to simplify the structure and operation of the load lock device and the robot.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION A primary object of the present invention is to overcome the deficiencies of the prior art and to provide a vacuum lock system capable of reducing the load of the transfer robot and having both a substrate processing and a substrate transfer function.

To achieve the above object, the present invention provides a vacuum lock system for transferring a substrate, comprising a chamber body, a substrate support assembly, and a lifting mechanism. Wherein the chamber body includes a first chamber and a second chamber that are vertically stacked, wherein the second chamber sidewall forms two openings selectively connectable to an atmospheric atmosphere or a vacuum processing environment, the first The chamber is for plasma treatment of a substrate placed therein having a bottom opening in communication with the first chamber. The substrate support assembly is disposed in the chamber body in a liftable manner, and includes a first support member and a second support member respectively stacked vertically for carrying the substrate, and the first support member And a spacer between the second support member and having a size larger than the first support member. The lifting mechanism is configured to drive the substrate supporting assembly to move between a first position and a second position, the first position is a sealing opening of the first chamber, the first opening a support member is disposed in the first chamber and the second support member corresponds to two openings formed on sidewalls of the second chamber, and the second position is that the first support member corresponds to the second chamber Two openings formed on the side walls.

Preferably, when the substrate support assembly is in the first position, the substrate processed by the first chamber is transferred to the atmospheric atmosphere environment and from the atmospheric atmosphere environment through the second chamber Substrate transferred to the vacuum processing environment; when the substrate support assembly is in the second position, removing the plasma-processed substrate on the first support and passing the vacuum The environmentally treated substrate is transferred to the first support.

Preferably, the vacuum lock system further includes a lift pin assembly driven by the lift mechanism and movable relative to the substrate support assembly; the lower end of the lift pin assembly when the substrate support assembly is in the second position a substrate abutting against the bottom of the second chamber and an upper end above the first support member to lift the substrate, and when the substrate support assembly is in the first position, the lower end of the lift pin assembly is suspended, The upper end is located below the first support.

Preferably, the second chamber has a gate valve mechanism that seals the two openings in an open and closed manner such that the second chamber is selectively connectable to an atmospheric or vacuum processing environment.

Preferably, the first chamber and the second chamber each have an exhaust device to independently control the pressure therein such that the first chamber performs a plasma treatment on the substrate therein in a vacuum environment, the second chamber The substrate is switched to an atmospheric pressure environment when the substrate is transferred to the atmosphere, and is switched to a vacuum environment when the substrate is transferred to the vacuum processing environment.

Preferably, the first support has a heater for heating a substrate placed on the first support; the heater is isolated from the insulation plate by a heat insulator.

Preferably, the first chamber is a tantalum photoresist plasma processing chamber.

Preferably, the second support member has two layers of slots disposed above and below to respectively place two substrates, wherein one layer of the socket is for placing the substrate from the atmospheric atmosphere environment, and the other layer is for placing the substrate. The substrate processed through the first chamber.

Preferably, the vacuum lock system is two, and the two vacuum lock systems are arranged adjacent to each other in parallel and the first chamber thereof shares the exhaust device.

Preferably, one side of the vacuum lock system is connected to the robot working chamber of the vacuum environment, and the other side is connected to the robot working chamber in an atmospheric atmosphere environment.

Preferably, the robot working chamber of the vacuum environment includes a first robot and a second robot, the first robot and the second robot being used in the substrate supporting assembly and the vacuum processing environment Transferring a substrate between the first support member and the second support member of the substrate support assembly; the robot working chamber in the atmosphere atmosphere environment includes a third robot and a fourth robot The third robot and the fourth robot are used to transfer the substrate between the second support and the atmosphere.

Preferably, when the vacuum lock system is two, the first robot and the second robot are both two-arm robots.

According to another aspect of the present invention, there is also provided a substrate processing method for a substrate processing method using the above vacuum lock system, comprising:

Step S1: lowering the substrate supporting assembly to the second position, and placing the vacuum processing environment-treated substrate on the first supporting member;

Step S2: raising the substrate supporting assembly to the first position, and performing plasma treatment on the substrate processed by the vacuum processing environment placed therein through the first chamber of the vacuum lock system;

Step S3: lowering the substrate supporting assembly to the second position; picking up the substrate on the first supporting member processed by the first chamber;

Step S4: raising the substrate supporting assembly to the first position, transferring the substrate processed by the first chamber to the atmosphere of the atmosphere through the second chamber of the vacuum lock system, passing through the A second chamber of the vacuum lock system delivers another substrate from the atmosphere to the vacuum processing environment.

Preferably, the second chamber in the steps S1 and S3 is a vacuum environment, wherein in step S1, the vacuum processing environment-treated substrate is placed on the first support member by a second robot; In S3, the substrate processed by the first chamber on the first support member is picked up by a first robot;

Transferring the substrate processed by the first chamber to the atmospheric atmosphere environment and transferring another substrate from the atmospheric atmosphere environment to the vacuum through a second chamber of the vacuum lock system in step S4 The steps to handle the environment include:

Placing a substrate processed by the first chamber that has been picked up by the first robot to the second support member;

Switching the second chamber into an atmospheric environment, and then picking up the substrate processed by the first chamber on the second support by a third robot and transmitting to the atmospheric atmosphere, through a fourth robot Another unprocessed substrate from the atmospheric atmosphere environment is placed on the second support;

Switching the second chamber into a vacuum environment.

Preferably, the vacuum lock system is two, two of the vacuum lock systems are adjacently arranged in parallel and the first chamber shares the exhaust device, and the first robot and the second robot are both arms a robot, in steps S1, S3 and S4 between the substrate support assembly of the two vacuum lock systems and the vacuum processing environment, and the first support of the two substrate support assemblies The substrate transfer operation is synchronized with the second support member.

The invention has the beneficial effects that the substrate supporting assembly is moved between the first chamber located at the upper portion and the second chamber located at the lower portion by the arrangement of the lifting mechanism, so that the robot does not need to rise to the first chamber to pick up and transport the substrate, The burden of transferring the substrate at different heights by the robot is reduced, which simplifies the operation complexity of the robot and improves work efficiency.

In order to make the content of the present invention clearer and easier to understand, the contents of the present invention will be further described below in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. Of course, the invention is not limited to the specific embodiment, and general replacements well known to those skilled in the art are also encompassed within the scope of the invention.

1 and 2 are cross-sectional views of a vacuum lock system in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention. The vacuum lock system has a chamber body 10, a substrate support assembly 20 and a lifting mechanism 30. The chamber body 10 includes a first chamber 11 and a second chamber 12, and the first chamber 11 and the second chamber 12 are vertically stacked. Wherein, the first chamber 11 is used for plasma treatment of the substrate placed therein, for example, it may be a photoresist photoresist processing chamber for removing photoresist from the surface of the substrate. It will be appreciated that the first chamber 11 may also be another plasma processing chamber such as an etch residue. A gas supply device (such as a gas shower head, not shown) and an exhaust device 112 for inputting a reaction gas may be disposed in the first chamber 11. The gas supply means may be connected to the remote plasma source to supply the plasma of the reaction gas generated thereby to the first chamber, or may be coupled to the RF source to ionize the reaction gas into the plasma in the first chamber 11. body. The bottom of the first chamber 11 has an opening that communicates with the second chamber 12. The second chamber 12 is for substrate exchange between adjacent environments, the side walls of which form two openings 121 and 122, wherein the opening 121 is adapted to be connected to an atmospheric atmosphere environment, such as a factory surrounding environment such as a substrate storage case, and The opening 122 is adapted to be connected to a vacuum processing environment, such as a vacuum processing chamber for various types of vacuum processing of the substrate. By sealing control of the two openings 121 and 122, the second chamber 12 can be selectively switched into communication with a vacuum processing environment or an atmospheric atmosphere environment to transfer the substrate between two different air pressure environments. Preferably, the second chamber 12 has gate valve mechanisms 123 and 124 which respectively seal the two openings 121 and 122 in an open and closed manner so that the second chamber 12 can be selectively connected to the atmospheric atmosphere environment. Or vacuum processing environment. In addition, the second chamber 12 also has an exhaust device 125 (such as a vacuum pump) for controlling the pressure in the second chamber 12 to be switched to atmospheric ambient pressure or vacuum ambient pressure. Since the first chamber 11 and the second chamber 12 each have an exhaust device to independently control the pressure therein, the first chamber 11 can be subjected to plasma treatment of the substrate therein in a vacuum environment, and the second chamber 12 is in the atmosphere. The atmosphere is switched to an atmospheric pressure environment when the substrate is transferred, and is switched to a vacuum environment when the substrate is transferred to the vacuum processing environment.

The substrate support assembly 20 is disposed in the chamber body 10 in a liftable manner. Wherein, the substrate supporting assembly 20 includes a first supporting member 21, a second supporting member 22, and a partitioning plate 23. The first support member 21, the partitioning plate 23, and the second support member 22 are vertically stacked from top to bottom. Both the first and second support members 21, 22 are used to carry the substrate. The partitioning plate 23 is larger in size than the first supporting member 21 for sealing the opening of the bottom of the first chamber 11 in communication with the second chamber 12 when the first supporting member 21 is placed in the first chamber, and the first chamber 11 and the second chamber Room 12 is isolated. In order to further improve the sealing effect of the separator 23, the separator 23 preferably has an O-ring 25 at its edge. In order to improve the transfer efficiency, the second support member 22 has a transfer of the substrate through the second chamber 12, including transfer to both the atmospheric atmosphere environment and the vacuum processing environment. To improve the transfer efficiency, in a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the second support member 22 has Two layers of slots 221, 222 disposed above and below are used to respectively place two substrates. The upper slot 221 is for placing a substrate from an atmospheric atmosphere, which is to be transferred to a vacuum processing environment, and the lower slot 222 is for placing a substrate that has been processed by the first chamber 11 and is to be transferred to an atmospheric atmosphere or The upper slot 221 is for placing a substrate that has been processed through the first chamber 11 and that is to be transported to an atmospheric atmosphere, and the lower slot 222 is for placing a substrate from the atmospheric atmosphere that is to be transferred to the vacuum processing environment. On the other hand, since the first chamber 11 is subjected to plasma treatment of the substrate placed therein, the substrate needs to be heated. Therefore, a heater (not shown), such as a heating wire, is provided in the first support member 21 to heat the substrate placed on the first support member in cooperation with the plasma treatment of the first chamber 11. The heater is isolated by a heat insulating member and a separator 23 to prevent heat leakage.

The lift mechanism 30 is used to drive the substrate support assembly 20 to move between a first position (shown in Figure 1) and a second position (shown in Figure 2). Specifically, the first position referred to herein means that the first support member 21 is placed in the first chamber 11, the partition plate 23 seals the bottom opening of the first chamber 11, and the second support member 22 is located in the second chamber 12. Inside and corresponding to the two openings 121 and 122 of the second chamber 12; the second position means that the first support 21 is located in the second chamber 12 and corresponds to the two openings 121, 122. Therefore, when the substrate supporting assembly 20 is raised to the first position, the partitioning plate 23 isolates the first chamber 11 from the second chamber 12, and the first chamber 11 and the second chamber 12 respectively perform different operations, that is, the first chamber 11 The substrate placed therein is subjected to a plasma treatment, and the second chamber 12 transfers the substrate from the atmospheric atmosphere to the vacuum processing environment and transfers the substrate processed through the first chamber 11 to an atmospheric atmosphere; After the processing of the substrate in the chamber 11 is completed, the substrate support assembly 20 is lowered to the second position by the action of the lifting mechanism 30, so that the first chamber 11 on the first support member 21 in the second chamber 12 can be conveniently disposed. The processed substrate is picked up and removed, and the substrate processed by the vacuum processing environment is placed on the first support member 21 to effect replacement of the substrate on the first support member 21. When the lifting mechanism 30 raises the substrate supporting assembly 20 to the first position again, the replaced substrate processed by the first chamber 11 is placed in the second support 22 in the second chamber 12 to be transferred to the atmosphere. Atmosphere. Since the process of substrate transfer is always performed at the same height (second chamber), the mechanical load of the robot (or robot) is greatly reduced.

With continued reference to FIGS. 1 and 2, in the present embodiment, the lift pin assembly 31 is disposed on the substrate support assembly in a manner to pass through the spacer 23. The lift pin assembly 31 is also coupled to the lift mechanism for driving up and down relative to the substrate support assembly 20. The lift pin assembly 31 has a plurality of lift pins, each lift pin having a level of support. When the substrate support assembly 20 is raised to the first position, the lower end of the lift pin assembly 31 is suspended and the upper end is located below the first support member 21, preferably against the upper surface of the partition plate 23. When the substrate supporting assembly 20 is in the second position, the lower end of the lifting pin assembly 31 abuts against the bottom of the second chamber 12, and the upper end is located above the first supporting member 21, and the level of the supporting portion thereof will be on the first supporting member 21. The substrate is lifted to facilitate the transfer of the substrate.

Next, the process of substrate processing of the vacuum lock system of the embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to FIGS. 3a to 3e, which involves processing of four substrates of W1, W2, W3 and W4, wherein Wi represents atmospheric atmosphere. An unprocessed substrate of the environment, Wi' denotes a substrate processed by a vacuum processing environment, and Wi'' denotes a substrate processed by the first chamber, i = 1, 2, 3, 4.

One side of the vacuum lock system is connected to the atmosphere atmosphere, and one side is connected to the vacuum processing environment. In this embodiment, one side of the vacuum lock system is connected to the robot working chamber 50 of the vacuum environment, and the other side is connected to the robot working chamber 40 in the atmosphere environment. The robotic working chamber 50 can be coupled to a plurality of vacuum processing chambers for vacuum processing the substrate transported through the robotic working chamber 50. The robotic working chamber 40 can be coupled to a substrate storage case such as an atmospheric atmosphere. The first robot 51 and the second robot 52 are included in the robot working chamber 50 of the vacuum processing environment. The third robot 41 and the fourth robot 42 are included in the robot working chamber 40 of the atmospheric atmosphere environment. Wherein the first robot 51 and the second robot 52 are used to transfer a base between the substrate support assembly 20 and the vacuum processing environment, and between the first support 21 and the second support 22 of the substrate support assembly 20. sheet. The third robot 41 and the fourth robot 42 are used to transfer the substrate between the second support 22 and the atmospheric atmosphere. By the operation of these robots in conjunction with the lift mechanism 30, the valve mechanism, and the corresponding exhaust device, desired substrate transfer and processing operations can be achieved.

First, referring to Fig. 3a, the lifting mechanism 30 lowers the substrate supporting assembly 20 to the second position, and the substrate W1'' processed through the first chamber 11 is placed in the second chamber. At this time, the substrate is transferred between the second chamber 12 and the vacuum processing environment, so that the opening 121 is sealed by the gate valve mechanism 123, and the opening 122 is opened by the gate valve mechanism 124. The second chamber is maintained in a vacuum environment by controlling the exhaust device 125. Since the first chamber 11 is not subjected to the plasma treatment at this time, the heater of the first support member 21 is no longer operated; the exhaust device 112 of the first chamber 11 can communicate with the robot working chamber 50, thereby passing through the robot working chamber. The exhaust unit 53 of the 50 and the exhaust unit 125 of the second chamber achieve a balanced vacuum environment within the robot working chamber 50, the first chamber 11 and the second chamber 12. The first robot 51 in the robot working chamber 50 picks up the substrate W1" from the first support member 21. Then, the second robot 52 places the substrate W2' processed in the vacuum processing environment on the first support. On the member 21, in this embodiment, another unprocessed substrate W3 from the atmosphere environment has been placed on the upper slot 221 of the second support member 22.

Next, as shown in FIG. 3b, the elevating mechanism 30 raises the substrate supporting assembly to the first position, and the substrate W2' is placed in the first chamber 11 to perform, for example, photoresist processing P. Therefore, at this time, the exhaust device 112 of the first chamber 11 discharges the reaction by-products in the first chamber 11 and controls the degree of vacuum therein, and thus no longer communicates with the robot working chamber 50. The vacuum side first robot 51 places the picked-up processed substrate W1'' in the lower layer slot 222 of the second support member 22, and the second robot hand 52 picks up the unprocessed substrate W3 in the upper layer slot 221. And transferred to the corresponding vacuum processing chamber of the vacuum processing environment.

Then, referring to FIG. 3c, in this step, the inside of the second chamber 12 is switched to the atmospheric environment. Specifically, the opening 122 is sealed by the gate valve mechanism 124 to block the communication between the second chamber 12 and the robot working chamber 50 of the vacuum environment; the opening 121 is sealed by the gate valve mechanism 123 to block the second chamber 12 and the robot working chamber 40 of the atmospheric environment. The communication is communicated to the atmosphere through the exhaust unit 125 of the second chamber to change the air pressure in the second chamber 12 to be normal pressure. During this process, the robot working chamber 50 and the first chamber 11 remain in a vacuum environment.

With continued reference to Figure 3d, substrate transfer between the second chamber 12 and the atmosphere environment is performed in this step. Specifically, the gate valve mechanism 124 still seals the opening 122, and the gate valve mechanism 123 opens the opening 121 such that the second chamber 12 is in communication with the robotic working chamber 40 of the atmosphere. The exhaust unit 125 of the second chamber 12 is closed, and no gas is introduced or exhausted. The third robot 41 picks up the first chamber-processed substrate W1'' in the lower layer slot 222 of the second support member 22 and transports it to an atmospheric atmosphere such as a storage case, and the fourth robot 42 is placed in an atmospheric atmosphere. The unprocessed substrate W4 is placed on the upper layer slot 221 of the second support member 22.

Next, as shown in FIG. 3e, the inside of the second chamber 12 is switched to a vacuum environment. Specifically, the opening 124 is sealed by the gate valve mechanism 124 to block the communication between the second chamber 12 and the robot working chamber 50 of the vacuum environment; the opening 121 is sealed by the gate valve mechanism 123 to block the second chamber 12 and the robot working chamber 40 of the atmospheric environment. The communication is exhausted through the exhaust unit 125 of the second chamber to change the air pressure in the second chamber 12 to a vacuum. During this process, the robot working chamber 50 and the first chamber 11 remain in a vacuum environment.

After the steps shown in Figures 3a to 3e are completed, the lifting mechanism 30 again lowers the substrate supporting assembly 20 to the second position, and again performs substrate transfer of the second chamber 12 and the vacuum processing environment (as shown in Figure 3a). .

It should be noted that, in the present invention, the number of slots of the second support member and the number of robots in the working chamber of the robot in the atmospheric atmosphere environment can be set according to actual needs. For example, in the above embodiment, the second support member 22 has two slots, but in practical applications, the second support member 22 has only one slot sufficient to complete the above-described substrate processing. In this case, in the step shown in FIG. 3b, the second robot 52 first transfers the unprocessed substrate W3 in the slot of the second support member 22 to the corresponding vacuum processing chamber of the vacuum processing environment, and then A robot 51 then places the processed substrate W1'' that it has picked up into the slot of the second support member 22. In the step shown in FIG. 3d, the third robot 41 first picks up the first chamber-processed substrate W1'' in the slot of the second support member 22 and transmits it to an atmospheric atmosphere such as a storage box, and then The four robots 42 then place the untreated substrate W4 in the atmosphere environment in the slot of the second support member 22.

On the other hand, when the second support member 22 has two slots, the robotic working chamber 40 of the atmospheric atmosphere environment may include only one robot. In the step shown in Fig. 3d, the machine on the atmospheric atmosphere environment side The hand first places the untreated substrate W4 in the atmospheric atmosphere on the upper slot 221 of the second support member 22, and then picks up the first chamber-processed substrate W1' in the lower slot 222 of the second support member 22. 'And transfer to an atmospheric atmosphere such as a storage box.

4 and 5 show a cross-sectional view and a plan view of a dual vacuum lock system in accordance with another embodiment of the present invention. In the present embodiment, the number of the vacuum lock systems 1 is two, and the two vacuum lock systems 1 are arranged adjacent to each other in parallel. The vacuum processing chamber 2 and the two vacuum lock systems 1 are coupled to a vacuum robot working chamber 50 (or a substrate transfer chamber). In this embodiment, the vacuum manipulator working chamber 50 has five sides, wherein two adjacent sides are respectively coupled to two vacuum lock systems 1, and the remaining three sides are each connected to a pair of vacuum processing chambers 2 . The other side of the two vacuum lock systems 1 is coupled to the substrate storage cassette via an atmospheric environment robotic working chamber 40. The structure of each vacuum lock system is the same as that of the above embodiment, and will not be further described herein. However, it should be noted that the first chamber 11 of the two vacuum lock systems share the exhaust device 112, and the separated reaction gas distribution composition, the separated RF RF source or other process parameters may be used, so that the two first chambers 11 It is equivalent to forming an integrated plasma processing chamber. By sharing some equipment and resources, such as exhaust and reactive gases, the dual vacuum lock system can process two substrates at the same time, which can effectively improve the defects of low productivity and high production cost.

It should be noted that, for the double vacuum lock system, the first robot 51 and the second robot 52 of the robot working chamber 50 in the vacuum environment are both dual-arm robots, so that two substrates can be simultaneously transported. Specifically, in the step shown in FIG. 3a, the two-arm first robot 51 simultaneously picks up the substrate W1'' from the first support members of the two vacuum lock systems, and the second-arm second-hand robot 52 simultaneously vacuums. The two substrates W2' treated in the processing environment are placed on the two first supports 21, respectively. In the step shown in FIG. 3b, the two-arm first robot 51 simultaneously places the substrate W1'' picked up in the lower slot 222 of the two second support members 22, and the second robot 52 of the two arms. The unprocessed substrate W3 of the two upper slots 221 is then picked up and transferred to the corresponding vacuum processing chamber of the vacuum processing environment. Thereby, the substrate transfer operation is effected between the substrate support assembly of the two vacuum lock systems and the vacuum processing environment, and between the first support member and the second support member of the two substrate support assemblies. The third robot 41 and the fourth robot 42 may be single-arm or dual-arm robots, which are not limited herein.

According to another aspect of the invention, a vacuum processing system having the above described vacuum lock system or dual vacuum lock system is provided. The vacuum processing system includes, in addition to at least one vacuum lock system, at least one vacuum processing chamber (such as vacuum processing chamber 2 in FIG. 5) for processing the substrate in a vacuum environment and at least one vacuum processing in a vacuum environment. The chamber is connected to a vacuum transfer chamber or a vacuum robot working chamber (such as the robot working chamber 50 in FIG. 5). One side of each vacuum lock system is connected to at least one vacuum processing chamber through a vacuum robot working chamber, and the other side is connected to an atmospheric atmosphere environment such as a substrate storage case through a robot working chamber in an atmospheric atmosphere environment.

According to another aspect of the present invention, a substrate processing method using the above single vacuum lock system or double vacuum lock system is provided. 3a to 3e show an embodiment in which the above-described vacuum lock system processes a plurality of substrates. Next, a substrate processing method of the present invention will be described by taking a single vacuum lock system to treat a substrate as an example. The substrate processing method includes the following steps:

Step S1: Lowering the substrate supporting assembly to the second position, and placing the vacuum processing environment-treated substrate on the first supporting member. In this step, the vacuum processed environment-treated substrate is transferred to the first support by a second robot to further perform plasma treatment on the substrate in a subsequent step. In this step, the second chamber and the first chamber are maintained in a vacuum environment equal to the vacuum processing environment by the exhausting means of the second chamber and the first chamber.

Step S2: Raising the substrate support assembly to the first position, and subjecting the vacuum treated environment treated substrate placed therein to plasma treatment through the first chamber of the vacuum lock system. In this step, the first chamber is maintained in a vacuum environment conforming to the process conditions by the venting means of the first chamber, and the substrate is heated by a heater of the substrate supporting assembly as necessary.

Step S3: lowering the substrate supporting assembly to the second position; picking up the substrate processed by the first chamber on the first supporting member. In this step, the pickup operation of the substrate processed by the first chamber is performed by the first robot. At this time, the vacuum is left in the vacuum through the second chamber and the first chamber.

Step S4: raising the substrate supporting assembly to the first position, transferring the substrate processed by the first chamber to the atmospheric atmosphere through the second chamber, and transferring another substrate from the atmospheric atmosphere to the second chamber through the second chamber Vacuum treatment environment.

The substrate transfer step after the substrate supporting assembly is raised to the first position in step S4 includes:

First, the first chamber-treated substrate that has been picked up by it is placed on the second support by the first robot.

Then, the second chamber is switched to an atmospheric environment, and then the first chamber-processed substrate on the second support is picked up by a third robot and transferred to an atmospheric atmosphere, and the fourth robot is used to bring the atmosphere from the atmosphere. Another untreated substrate is placed on the second support.

Next, the second chamber is switched to a vacuum environment.

Preferably, the second support member has two upper and lower slots, the unprocessed substrate from the atmospheric atmosphere is placed in one of the slots of the second support, and the substrate processed through the first chamber is placed on the second Another layer of slots for the support.

Preferably, the environmental switching of the second chamber comprises two steps. First, the two openings of the sidewall of the second chamber are sealed, and a gas inflow or gas discharge step is performed, and then the air atmosphere environment or the vacuum processing environment is correspondingly connected. The opening of the opening opens to keep the other opening sealed, thereby enabling environmental switching of the second chamber.

The above steps complete the processing of a piece of substrate. In practical applications, as shown in Figures 3a to 3e, in order to improve the working efficiency, a plurality of different substrates are simultaneously processed by the vacuum lock system and the vacuum processing environment, so the second robot in step S1 will process the vacuum processing environment. Before the sheet W2' is placed on the first support, another substrate W1" that has been processed by the first chamber on the first support is picked up by the first robot. Similarly, after the first robot picks up the W2'' of the substrate W2' processed by the first chamber in step S3, the second robot places another substrate W3' processed by the vacuum processing environment on the first support. on. In step S4, while the first robot continues to transfer the picked substrate W2" to the second support, the second robot can also apply another untreated base from the atmosphere to the second support. Sheet W4 is transferred to a vacuum processing environment.

If the substrate processing is performed by the double vacuum lock system, the first robot and the second robot are both two-arm robots, respectively, in the above steps S1, S3 and S4 in the two substrate support assemblies and vacuum processing A synchronized substrate transfer action is performed between the environments and between the first and second supports of the two substrate support assemblies.

The present invention has been described in the above preferred embodiments, and the present invention is not intended to limit the scope of the present invention, and is not intended to limit the scope of the invention. A number of changes and refinements may be made, and the scope of protection claimed by the present invention shall be as described in the scope of the patent application.

1‧‧‧Vacuum lock system
10‧‧‧ chamber body
11‧‧‧First Room
112, 53‧‧‧ exhaust
12‧‧‧ second room
121‧‧‧ openings
123, 124‧‧ ‧ door valve mechanism
125‧‧‧Exhaust device
2‧‧‧ Vacuum processing chamber
20‧‧‧Substrate support assembly
21‧‧‧First support
22‧‧‧second support
221, 222‧‧‧ slots
23‧‧‧Isolation board
25‧‧‧ sealing ring
30‧‧‧ Lifting mechanism
31‧‧‧ Lifting pin assembly
40, 50‧‧‧manipulator working chamber
41‧‧‧third robot
42‧‧‧fourth manipulator
51‧‧‧First robot
52‧‧‧second robot
P‧‧‧Plastic treatment
S1, S2, S3, S4‧‧‧ steps
W1, W1'', W2, W2', W2'', W3, W3', W4, Wi, Wi', Wi''‧‧‧ substrates

1 is a schematic structural view of a vacuum lock system when a substrate support assembly is in a second position according to an embodiment of the present invention; FIG. 2 is a view showing a structure of a vacuum lock system when a substrate support assembly is in a first position according to an embodiment of the present invention; 3a-3e are schematic structural views of a vacuum lock system for transferring a substrate according to an embodiment of the present invention; FIG. 4 is a schematic structural view of a double vacuum lock system according to an embodiment of the present invention; FIG. 5 is a double vacuum lock according to an embodiment of the present invention; A top view of the system; Fig. 6 is a flow chart of a method of processing a substrate according to an embodiment of the present invention.

10‧‧‧ chamber body

11‧‧‧First Room

112‧‧‧Exhaust device

12‧‧‧ second room

121, 122‧‧‧ openings

123, 124‧‧ ‧ door valve mechanism

125‧‧‧Exhaust device

20‧‧‧Substrate support assembly

21‧‧‧First support

22‧‧‧second support

221, 222‧‧‧ slots

23‧‧‧Isolation board

25‧‧‧ sealing ring

30‧‧‧ Lifting mechanism

31‧‧‧ Lifting pin assembly

W1, W2‧‧‧ substrates

Claims (15)

A vacuum lock system for transferring a substrate, comprising: a chamber body including a vertically stacked first chamber and a second chamber, wherein the second chamber sidewall is formed to be selectively connectable to an atmospheric atmosphere or a vacuum processing environment Two openings, the first chamber is for plasma treatment of the substrate placed therein, and has a bottom opening communicating with the second chamber; the substrate supporting assembly is disposed in a liftable manner The chamber body includes vertically stacked first and second supports for carrying the substrate, respectively, and a dimension between the first support and the second support is larger than the a spacer of the first support; a lifting mechanism for driving the substrate support assembly to move between a first position and a second position, the first position sealing the first chamber a bottom opening, the first support is placed in the first chamber and the second support corresponds to two openings formed on the sidewall of the second chamber, the second position is the first support Corresponding to the second chamber side wall Into the two openings. The vacuum lock system of claim 1, wherein the substrate processed by the first chamber is transferred to the atmosphere through the second chamber when the substrate support assembly is in the first position Environment and transferring a substrate from the atmospheric atmosphere environment to the vacuum processing environment; when the substrate support assembly is in the second position, completing the base of the plasma treatment on the first support The sheet is removed and the substrate treated by the vacuum processing environment is transferred to the first support. The vacuum lock system of claim 1, further comprising a lift pin assembly driven by the lift mechanism and movable relative to the substrate support assembly; when the substrate support assembly is in the second position, The lower end of the lift pin assembly abuts against the bottom of the second chamber, and the upper end is located above the first support to lift the substrate thereon, when the substrate support assembly is in the first position, The lower end of the lift pin assembly is suspended, and the upper end is located below the first support member. The vacuum lock system of claim 1, wherein the second chamber has a gate valve mechanism that seals the two openings in an open and closed manner to selectively connect the second chamber to an atmospheric atmosphere environment Or vacuum processing environment. The vacuum lock system of claim 4, wherein the first chamber and the second chamber each have an exhaust device to independently control a pressure therein such that the first chamber energizes a substrate therein in a vacuum environment In the slurry treatment, the second chamber is switched to an atmospheric pressure environment when the substrate is transferred to the atmospheric atmosphere environment, and switched to a vacuum environment when the substrate is transferred to the vacuum processing environment. A vacuum lock system according to claim 1, wherein said first support member has a heater for heating a substrate placed on said first support member; said heater is insulated from said substrate by a heat insulating member Board isolation. The vacuum lock system of claim 1, wherein the first chamber is a tantalum photoresist plasma processing chamber. The vacuum lock system of claim 1, wherein the second support member has two layers of slots disposed above and below to respectively place two substrates, wherein one of the slots is for placing a base from the atmosphere atmosphere environment. A sheet, another layer of slots for placing the substrate processed through the first chamber. The vacuum lock system of claim 1, wherein the vacuum lock system is two, and the two vacuum lock systems are adjacently arranged in parallel and the first chamber shares an exhaust device. The vacuum lock system of any of claims 1-9, wherein one side of the vacuum lock system is coupled to a robotic working chamber of a vacuum environment and the other side is coupled to a robotic working chamber in an atmospheric atmosphere environment. The vacuum lock system of claim 10, wherein the robotic working chamber of the vacuum environment includes a first robot and a second robot, the first robot and the second robot being used in the base Transferring a substrate between the sheet support assembly and the vacuum processing environment, and between the first support member and the second support member of the substrate support assembly; the robotic working chamber in the atmospheric atmosphere environment includes a third A robot and a fourth robot, the third robot and the fourth robot for transferring a substrate between the second support and the atmosphere. The vacuum lock system of claim 11, wherein when the vacuum lock system is two, the first robot and the second robot are both dual-arm robots. A substrate processing method for a substrate processing method using the vacuum lock system according to any one of claims 1 to 8, comprising: step S1: lowering the substrate supporting assembly to the second Positioning the substrate processed by the vacuum processing environment on the first support; Step S2: raising the substrate support assembly to the first position, through the first chamber of the vacuum lock system Performing a plasma treatment on the substrate treated by the vacuum processing environment placed therein; Step S3: lowering the substrate support assembly to the second position; picking up the first support member Transferring the first chamber processed substrate to the second support; Step S4: raising the substrate support assembly to the first position, passing the substrate processed by the first chamber through the A second chamber of the vacuum lock system is transferred to the atmospheric atmosphere environment, and another substrate from the atmospheric atmosphere environment is transferred to the vacuum processing environment through a second chamber of the vacuum lock system. The substrate processing method of claim 13, wherein the second chamber in the steps S1 and S3 is a vacuum environment, wherein in the step S1, the substrate processed by the vacuum processing environment is placed by a second robot On the first support member; in step S3, the substrate processed by the first chamber on the first support member is picked up by the first robot; the first chamber is processed in step S4. The step of transferring the completed substrate to the atmospheric atmosphere environment and transferring another substrate from the atmospheric atmosphere environment to the vacuum processing environment through the second chamber of the vacuum lock system includes: passing the first The robot places the substrate that has been processed by the first chamber and is processed by the second support member; the second chamber is switched to an atmospheric environment, and then the second support member is picked up by the third robot. Passing the substrate processed by the first chamber and transferring to the atmospheric atmosphere environment, and placing another unprocessed substrate from the atmospheric atmosphere environment on the second support member by a fourth robot; Switching the second room Vacuum environment. The substrate processing method of claim 14, wherein the vacuum lock system is two, two of the vacuum lock systems are adjacently arranged in parallel and a first chamber thereof shares an exhaust device, the first robot and The second robots are both dual-arm manipulators in steps S1, S3 and S4 between the substrate support assembly of the two vacuum lock systems and the vacuum processing environment, and at the two The substrate transfer operation is performed synchronously between the first support member and the second support member of the substrate supporting assembly.