TWI763129B - Pumping device, pumping method, and multi-chamber plasma processor - Google Patents

Abstract

Embodiments of the present invention provide an air extraction device, an air extraction method and a multi-chamber plasma processor. The air extraction device includes a vacuum pump, a pendulum valve, a mixing chamber, and a separation component in the mixing chamber. The separating part divides the mixing chamber into a plurality of sub-chambers, each sub-chamber is connected to a cavity to be treated, the swing valve is connected to the mixing chamber and the vacuum pump, the swing valve includes a valve plate and a swing valve body, and the separating part is connected to the swing valve. , when the pendulum valve has a pendulum valve opening, the partition member divides the pendulum valve opening into a plurality of sub-openings, each of which faces a sub-chamber, and the pendulum valve opening is formed by the rotation of the valve plate relative to the pendulum valve body, and the partition member The shape is determined according to the rotation path of the valve plate. The air extraction device of the present invention determines the shape of the partition member according to the rotation path of the valve plate, so as to determine the area of the sub-opening facing the sub-chamber in the opening of the pendulum valve, and then utilizes a vacuum pump as the cavity to be processed connected to the sub-chamber. Provide low air pressure to improve the stability of the cavity environment.

Description

Pumping device, pumping method, and multi-chamber plasma processor

The invention relates to the field of semiconductor device manufacturing, in particular to a gas pumping device, a gas pumping method and a multi-cavity plasma processor.

During the preparation of semiconductor devices, the devices can be processed in a vacuum environment, such as the formation of thin films in semiconductor devices, plasma etching of thin films, etc. Therefore, when processing semiconductor devices, the semiconductor devices can be placed in a cavity , the cavity is usually connected to an air extraction device to achieve a vacuum, so as to provide a vacuum environment for the semiconductor device.

At present, a set of air extraction devices can be configured for a plurality of cavities, so as to provide a vacuum environment for the plurality of cavities at the same time. Specifically, a plurality of cavities can be respectively connected with a hollow mixing chamber, the mixing chamber is connected with a swing valve, and the swing valve is connected with a vacuum pump. When the swing valve has a certain opening, the vacuum pump can provide low air pressure for the mixing chamber, and the plurality of chambers The air, reaction waste gas, charged particles, etc. in the body flow to the low-pressure mixing chamber, so that the air pressure in the plurality of chambers decreases accordingly.

However, in this method of reducing the air pressure of a plurality of cavities, the gases in the plurality of cavities flow to the low-pressure mixing area, which may cause mutual channeling due to thermal motion, resulting in the gas atmosphere and the air pressure state in the cavities being affected by other cavities. This is not conducive to the stability of the cavity environment, and may affect the processing quality of the semiconductor device in the cavity.

In view of this, embodiments of the present invention provide a gas pumping method and apparatus, which can provide a stable cavity environment and improve the processing quality of semiconductor devices in the cavity.

An air pumping device, comprising: a vacuum pump, a pendulum valve, a mixing chamber and a separation part in the mixing chamber; the separation part divides the mixing chamber into a plurality of sub-cavities, and the plurality of sub-cavities are used to respectively connect a plurality of to-be-processed chambers; a pendulum The valve connects the mixing chamber and the vacuum pump; the swing valve includes a valve plate and a swing valve body; the separating part is connected to the swing valve, and when the swing valve has a swing valve opening, the separating part divides the swing valve opening into a plurality of sub-openings, and the plurality of sub-openings are respectively positive and negative. For a plurality of sub-cavities; the opening of the swing valve is formed by the rotation of the valve plate relative to the main body of the swing valve, and the shape of the partition part is determined according to the rotation path of the valve plate.

Preferably, the area difference between the plurality of areas corresponding to the opening of the pendulum valve and the plurality of sub-openings is less than or equal to a preset value.

Preferably, the preset value is less than or equal to 10%.

Preferably, the number of the plurality of sub-cavities, the plurality of sub-openings and the plurality of cavities to be processed is 2, and the partition member is a baffle.

Preferably, the baffle is a straight line, a curved line or a broken line in the plane where the vertical swing valve opening is located.

Preferably, the shape of the partition member in the plane connected to the pendulum valve is determined according to the rotation path of the valve plate.

Preferably, the partition member presents a curve in the plane connected to the swing valve, and the curve is an arc with the center of rotation of the valve plate as the center and the distance between the center of rotation and the center of the swing valve as the radius.

Preferably, the partition member presents a folded line in the plane connected to the swing valve, the distances of each line segment forming the folded line and the rotation center of the valve plate are consistent, and the broken line passes through the center of the swing valve.

Preferably, the separating member is a straight line in the plane connected to the swing valve, the straight line passes through the center of the swing valve and is perpendicular to the line connecting the center of the swing valve and the center of rotation of the valve plate.

Preferably, the area of the opening of the pendulum valve is determined based on the air pressure requirement of the cavity to be treated.

An air extraction method using the above air extraction device includes: determining the area of the opening of the pendulum valve based on the air pressure requirement of the cavity to be processed, so as to use a vacuum pump to reduce the air pressure of the cavity to be processed.

Embodiments of the present invention further provide a multi-chamber plasma processor, including a plurality of plasma processing chambers arranged adjacently, and the above-mentioned air pumping device.

Compared with the prior art, the present invention has at least the following advantages:

Embodiments of the present invention provide an air extraction device, an air extraction method, and a multi-chamber plasma processor, wherein the air extraction device includes a vacuum pump, a pendulum valve, a mixing chamber, and a separation component in the mixing chamber. The separating component divides the mixing chamber into a plurality of sub-chambers, and each sub-chamber is respectively connected to a to-be-processed chamber. The swing valve is connected with the mixing chamber and the vacuum pump, and the swing valve includes a valve plate and a swing valve body. The partition member is connected with the swing valve. When the swing valve has a swing valve opening, the partition member divides the swing valve opening into a plurality of sub-openings, and each of the sub-openings faces a sub-cavity respectively. The swing valve opening is formed by the rotation of the valve plate relative to the swing valve body, and the shape of the partition member is determined according to the rotation path of the valve plate. The air extraction device of the present invention adjusts the area of the opening of the pendulum valve by adjusting the rotation of the valve plate relative to the main body of the pendulum valve, and determines the shape of the partition member according to the rotation path of the valve plate, so as to determine the opening of the pendulum valve that is opposite to the sub-cavity. the area of the sub-opening, and then use a vacuum pump to provide low air pressure for the cavity to be processed connected to the sub-cavity. At the same time, since the mixing chambers are separated by the valve plate, the problem of gas exchange in different chambers to be processed can be avoided, and the stability of the chamber environment and the processing quality of semiconductor devices in the chambers to be processed can be improved.

In order to make the above objects, features and advantages of the present invention more clearly understood, the specific embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

In the following description, many specific details are set forth to facilitate a full understanding of the present invention, but the present invention can be further implemented in other ways different from those described herein, and those with ordinary knowledge in the art can do so without departing from the connotation of the present invention. Similar promotion is made below, so the present invention is not limited by the specific embodiments disclosed below.

Next, the present invention is described in detail with reference to the schematic diagrams. When describing the embodiments of the present invention in detail, for the convenience of explanation, the sectional views showing the device structure are not partially enlarged according to the general scale, and the schematic diagrams are only examples, which should not limit the protection of the present invention. range. In addition, the three-dimensional spatial dimensions of length, width and depth should be included in the actual production.

At present, in the process of preparing a semiconductor device, the device can be processed in a vacuum environment. Usually, a vacuum environment can be provided for the cavity in which the semiconductor device is located by connecting an air extraction device. In a specific implementation, a set of air extraction devices can be provided for a plurality of cavities, and the air extraction device can reduce the vacuum degree of the plurality of cavities at the same time. The plurality of cavities are respectively connected with the hollow mixing chamber, the mixing chamber is connected with the swing valve, and the swing valve is connected with the vacuum pump. When the swing valve has a certain opening, the vacuum pump can provide low air pressure for the mixing chamber through the opening of the swing valve. The gas in the chamber flows to the mixing chamber, thereby reducing the gas pressure in the plurality of chambers at the same time.

However, in the method for reducing the air pressure of a plurality of cavities, when the gases in the plurality of cavities flow to the low-pressure mixing region, they may channel each other due to thermal motion, resulting in the mutual influence of the air pressure atmosphere and the air pressure state in different cavities. , which is not conducive to the stability of the cavity environment, and may affect the processing quality of the semiconductor device in the cavity.

In order to solve the above technical problems, an embodiment of the present invention provides an air extraction device, which includes: a vacuum pump, a pendulum valve, a mixing chamber, and a separation component in the mixing chamber. Wherein, the separating component divides the mixing cavity into a plurality of sub-cavities, and the plurality of sub-cavities are used to connect a plurality of to-be-processed cavities respectively. The swing valve is connected with the mixing chamber and the vacuum pump, and the swing valve includes a valve plate and a swing valve body. The partition member is connected to the swing valve, and when the swing valve has a swing valve opening, the partition member divides the swing valve opening into a plurality of sub-openings, and the plurality of sub-openings face the plurality of sub-cavities respectively. In addition, the swing valve opening is formed by the rotation of the valve plate relative to the swing valve body, and the shape of the partition member is determined according to the rotation path of the valve plate.

The air extraction device of the present invention divides the mixing chamber into a plurality of sub-chambers through the partition member, each sub-chamber is connected to a to-be-processed chamber, and the gas in the to-be-processed chamber flows to the corresponding sub-chambers in the mixing chamber respectively, so that different The gas in the cavity to be treated will not channel each other. A swing valve is connected between the mixing chamber and the vacuum pump. The swing valve includes a valve plate and a swing valve body. When the swing valve has an opening of the swing valve, the vacuum pump extracts the gas in the mixing chamber through the opening of the swing valve to reduce the air pressure in the mixing chamber, thereby reducing the Air pressure in the chamber to be treated. The partition part is connected to the pendulum valve, and divides the opening of the pendulum valve into a plurality of sub-openings, and the sub-openings face the sub-cavities, so that the vacuum pump can extract the gas in the opposite sub-cavities through the sub-openings, and reduce the pressure of each sub-cavity respectively. The air pressure of the body, and the air pressure of the cavity to be processed connected to the sub-cavity.

In the embodiment of the present invention, the shape of the partition member can be determined through the rotation path of the valve plate relative to the swing valve body, thereby determining the relative area of each sub-opening in the swing valve opening. The sub-opening corresponds to the sub-cavity, and the sub-cavities are connected to each other. When receiving the processing cavity, the area of the sub-opening affects the low-pressure state of the cavity to be processed. The larger the area of the sub-opening, the lower the air pressure in the cavity to be processed. Therefore, the relative area of the sub-opening in the opening of the pendulum valve can be determined by determining the shape of the partition member, so as to determine the air pressure state in each cavity to be processed.

In order to better understand the technical solutions and technical effects of the present invention, specific embodiments will be described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

Referring to FIG. 1 , an air extraction device provided by an embodiment of the present invention includes: a vacuum pump 101 , a swing valve 102 , a mixing chamber 103 , and a separation member 104 in the mixing chamber 103 . Wherein, the separating member 104 divides the mixing chamber 103 into a plurality of sub-cavities, and the plurality of sub-cavities are respectively connected to a plurality of to-be-processed chambers 105 .

The cavity 105 to be processed is a reaction cavity in the process of forming the semiconductor device. During the manufacturing process of the semiconductor device, the cavity 105 to be processed needs to be vacuum processed, thereby reducing the vacuum degree of the cavity 105 to be processed. Of course, the cavity 105 to be processed may also be a cavity that needs to provide a vacuum environment in other situations, which is not limited here. The number of cavities 105 to be processed may be two or more than two.

The plurality of chambers 105 to be processed may be different reaction chambers, or may be a plurality of reaction chambers in the same reaction chamber, and the plurality of reaction chambers may simultaneously perform the same process flow or perform different process processes. The processing chamber 105 may have the same air pressure, or may have different air pressures.

For example, the plurality of chambers 105 to be processed may all be reaction chambers for plasma etching of thin films. During the etching process, it is necessary to maintain a low gas pressure in the reaction chambers. Specifically, the plasma moves toward the film under the action of the electric field to etch the surface of the film, and the gas generated during the etching process needs to be extracted out of the cavity 105 to be processed, so as to prevent the gas pressure in the cavity 105 to be processed from increasing and affecting the electricity The etching effect of the slurry.

In the embodiment of the present invention, the cavity 105 to be processed can be connected to the mixing cavity 103 through the connecting hole 106 . Referring to FIG. 1 , the mixing cavity 103 can be connected to the vacuum pump 101 , and the vacuum pump 101 is used to provide a low-pressure environment for the mixing cavity 103 . The air pressure in the cavity 105 will flow to the mixing cavity 103 through the connecting hole 106, so that the pressure in the cavity 105 to be processed is reduced.

The mixing chamber 103 and the vacuum pump 101 can be connected through the swing valve 102, and the swing valve 102 controls whether the mixing chamber 103 and the vacuum pump 101 are connected. When the swing valve 102 has a certain opening, the mixing chamber 103 and the vacuum pump 101 are connected, and the larger the opening of the swing valve 102 is. , the larger the cross-sectional area of the channel between the mixing chamber 103 and the vacuum pump. The gas in the cavity 105 to be processed is merged in the mixing cavity 103 and extracted by the vacuum pump 101, thereby reducing the air pressure in the cavity 105 to be processed. Control of the pressure in the processing chamber 105 .

The swing valve 102 may include a valve plate 112 and a swing valve body 122, refer to FIGS. 2(a), 2(b) and 2(c), 3(a), 3(b) and 3(c) ), there is a fixed point between the valve plate 112 and the swing valve main body 122, and the valve plate 112 can rotate relative to the swing valve main body 122 around the fixed point. When the valve plate 112 and the swing valve main body 122 are not completely coincident, The swing valve 102 produces a swing valve opening, with position 100 between the valve plate 112 and the swing valve body 122, the swing valve 102 has a smaller swing valve opening, and from position 100 to position 900, with the rotation of the valve plate 112 , the overlapping area of the valve plate 112 and the swing valve body 122 becomes smaller and smaller, and the swing valve opening becomes larger and larger.

The vacuum pump 101 extracts the gas in the mixing chamber 103 through the opening of the pendulum valve to depressurize the plurality of chambers 105 to be processed. In a specific embodiment, the opening of the swing valve can be determined based on the air pressure requirements of a plurality of chambers 105 to be treated. When a larger air pressure is required in the chambers 105 to be treated, a smaller opening of the swing valve is set. When a smaller air pressure is required in the cavity 105, a larger opening of the pendulum valve is provided.

However, in the above process of depressurizing the plurality of chambers 105 to be processed, the gases in the chambers 105 to be processed flow to the mixing chamber 103 of low pressure and merge in the mixing chamber 103 . The pressures in the chambers 105 are different, for example, a part of the chambers 105 to be processed does not perform etching or coating treatment but has a relatively low gas pressure, and another part of the chambers needs to be subjected to etching or coating processing and has a higher gas pressure, or The multiple to-be-processed chambers 105 perform different operations respectively, resulting in different internal air pressures. At this time, the gases in the multiple to-be-processed chambers 105 will converge in the mixing chamber 103, and may cause mutual channeling due to thermal motion, resulting in multiple The air pressure distribution and the air pressure state among the cavities 105 to be processed affect each other, which is not conducive to the environmental stability in the cavities 105 to be processed.

Therefore, in the embodiment of the present invention, the mixing chamber 103 can be divided into a plurality of sub-chambers by the separating member 104, each sub-chamber is connected to a to-be-processed chamber 105, and the gas in the to-be-processed chamber 105 flows to the sub-chambers connected to it. The cavity is then pumped away, so that the gases in the cavity 105 to be processed will not channel each other after flowing to the mixing cavity 103, and will not affect each other.

The partition member 104 may be further connected to the swing valve 102. When the swing valve 102 has a swing valve opening, the partition member 104 divides the swing valve opening into a plurality of sub-openings, and the plurality of sub-openings face the plurality of sub-cavities respectively. The swing valve 102 is connected to the vacuum pump 101. When the swing valve 102 has a swing valve opening, the vacuum pump 101 can extract the gas of each sub-chamber in the mixing chamber 103 through the sub-opening facing the sub-chamber, thereby connecting to the sub-chambers respectively. The to-be-processed cavity 105 is depressurized.

In the embodiment of the present invention, the relative area of each sub-opening can be determined according to the air pressure required in the cavity 105 to be processed, and the areas of the plurality of sub-openings can be the same or different, for example, different processing operations are performed in the cavity 105 to be processed. When different air pressures are required, the areas of the plurality of sub-openings can be set to different areas. Of course, the areas of the plurality of sub-openings may have approximately the same ratio, and the same air pressure is required to perform the same operation in the plurality of chambers 105 to be processed, and the areas of the plurality of sub-openings may be set to approximately the same area. In a specific embodiment, the area difference between the plurality of sub-openings is less than or equal to a preset value, so that the air pressures in the plurality of to-be-processed cavities 105 are also approximately the same. In this embodiment, the preset value may be less than or equal to 10%, for example, may be 5%, 3%, or 1%.

In this embodiment of the present invention, the shape of the partition member 104 may be determined according to the rotation path of the valve plate 112 , for example, the shape of the partition member 104 may be determined according to the rotation center of the valve plate 112 and the center of the swing valve 102 , and the shape of the partition member 104 determines the shape of the partition member 104 . The relative area between the plurality of sub-openings, and the position between the valve plate 112 and the swing valve body 122 in the swing valve 102 determines the total area of the plurality of sub-openings, and further determines the sub-cavity connected to the sub-opening. The air pressure of the cavity 105 to be processed.

As an example, in this embodiment, the number of the plurality of sub-cavities, the sub-openings and the cavity to be processed 105 may be 2, the partition member 104 is a baffle, and the baffle may appear in the plane where the vertical pendulum valve opening is located. The shape does not affect the relative area of the sub-opening, so it can be a straight line, a curved line or a broken line. For example, the baffle can be a flat plate or a curved plate provided by the vertical swing valve 102 . It can be understood that the shape of the baffle plate in the plane where the vertical swing valve opening is located affects the relative volumes of the plurality of sub-cavities, for example, the shape of the curved plate affects the actual volume of the separated two sub-cavities.

The baffle may appear as a straight line, a curve or a broken line in the plane connected to the pendulum valve 102 , and the shape of the baffle affects the relative area of each sub-opening, which will be described in detail below.

The baffle plate may appear as a straight line in the plane connected to the swing valve 102 , as shown in FIG. 2( a ), FIG. 2( b ) and FIG. 2( c ), which are different opening degrees of the swing valve 102 in the embodiment of the present invention , the dotted line represents the position of the baffle relative to the pendulum valve 102 . Wherein, at each relative position of the valve plate 112 and the swing valve main body 122, the sub-opening area of the swing valve opening facing the two sub-cavities may be different, and the baffle vertically bisects the mixing chamber 103 to form two sub-cavities , and the vertical bisect valve opening forms two sub-openings. It can be seen from Figure 2(a), Figure 2(b) and Figure 2(c) that the sub-opening on the left side of the straight line corresponds to the sub-cavity on the left side, and The sub-opening on the right side of the straight line corresponds to the sub-cavity on the right side.

In the embodiment of the present invention, the area of the opening and the sub-openings of the swing valve with different opening degrees of the swing valve can be measured. It can be understood that different opening degrees of the swing valve correspond to different opening areas of the swing valve. The larger the opening area of the pendulum valve is. Referring to Table 1, it is a schematic diagram of the opening area (Open area) of the lower swing valve opening with different swing valve opening degrees, and the area S ₁ and area S ₂ of the two sub-openings, and the unit of area is mm ² . Wherein, different swing valve opening degrees can be represented by the relative position (Blade position) of the valve plate 112 and the swing valve body 122, including positions 100, 200, 300, 400, 500, 600, 700, 800, 900, and the area S ₁ is The area of the sub-opening on the right side of the baffle, the area S ₂ is the area of the sub-opening on the left side of the baffle, S ₁ +S ₂ is the area of the pendulum valve opening, S ₁ /(S ₁ +S ₂ ) represents the area S ₁ occupies the pendulum The ratio of the valve opening area. It is obvious that the area of area S1 is smaller _than that of area _S2 , and this difference is more obvious when the opening area of the pendulum valve is smaller.

Table 1 shows the area of the opening and the sub-openings of the swing valve with different opening degrees of the swing valve.

In this embodiment of the present invention, in order to maintain the oxygen-free environment of the cavity 105 to be processed, a gas may be introduced into the cavity 105 to be processed, for example, nitrogen (N ₂ ), argon (Ar), etc. The air pressure in the corresponding two to-be-processed chambers 105 is further measured under different opening degrees of pendulum valves (PV) and different gas flow rates. Referring to Table 2, it is the air pressure of the cavity 105 to be treated corresponding to different nitrogen flow rates under different swing valve openings. Here, the positions 100, 300, 500, 700, and 900 are used as examples for description, and the unit of nitrogen flow rate is per minute Standard milliliter (standard cubic centimeter per minute, sccm), the air pressure unit is mTorr, where, before the "/" is the air pressure of the cavity to be processed 105 connected to the sub-cavity directly opposite the area S ₂ , and after the "/" is the air pressure of the cavity to be processed 105 connected to the sub _- cavity facing the area S1. It can be seen from this that the air pressure of the cavity to be processed 105 connected to the sub-cavity facing the area S ₁ is always greater than or equal to the air pressure of the cavity 105 to be processed connected to the sub-cavity facing the area S ₂ . It can be seen from this that the existence of the partition causes the air pressure of the two chambers 105 to be processed to be different under some swing valve openings, and the smaller the swing valve opening, the more obvious the difference in air pressure. For example, at position 300 two to-be-treated The pressure difference between the chambers 105 reaches 7.5%.

Table 2 shows the air pressure of the cavity to be processed corresponding to different gas flow rates under different swing valve opening degrees.

In the embodiment of the present invention, the shape and position of the partition member 104 in the plane connected to the pendulum valve 102 can be further determined according to the rotation path of the valve plate 112, so as to allocate the area of each sub-opening more reasonably to satisfy the cavity to be treated respectively. Air pressure demand within body 105. Specifically, the area of each sub-opening can have a fixed ratio under different swing valve opening degrees, so that the low-pressure environment can be stably improved for each cavity 105 to be processed, for example, the area of each sub-opening can be kept at 1 : 1, so that the air pressures of the chambers 105 to be processed are equalized.

In the following, how to realize the area ratio of each sub-opening to 1:1, those with ordinary knowledge in the art can design baffles of other shapes based on the rotation path of the valve plate 112 according to the actual situation, so that the area of each sub-opening is remain at other ratios.

As a possible implementation manner, the separating member 104 may also be a straight line in the plane connected to the swing valve 102 , the straight line passing through the center of the swing valve 102 and perpendicular to the line connecting the center of the swing valve 102 and the rotation center of the valve plate 112 . The straight line divides the opening of the pendulum valve into two parts, and since the position of the straight line is related to the rotation center of the pendulum valve 102 , for the openings of the pendulum valve of different sizes, the relative areas of the divided sub-openings are relatively close. The air pressure is also closer.

As another possible implementation manner, the partition member 104 can be represented as a broken line in the plane connected to the swing valve 102 , and the distances of each line segment forming the broken line are consistent with the rotation center of the valve plate 112 , and the broken line passes through the center of the swing valve 102 . The folded line divides the pendulum valve opening into two parts. At the same time, for the pendulum valve openings of different sizes, the relative areas of the divided sub-openings are relatively close, and the air pressures of the plurality of cavities 105 to be processed are also relatively close.

As yet another possible implementation manner, the partition member 104 presents a curve in the plane connected to the swing valve 102 , the curve can be centered on the rotation center of the valve plate 112 , and the distance between the rotation center and the center of the swing valve 102 is Radius of the arc. Referring to FIGS. 3( a ) to 3 ( c ), which are schematic diagrams of the swing valve 102 in the embodiment of the present invention, the middle curve represents the position of the baffle plate relative to the swing valve 102 , wherein the valve plate 112 and the swing valve body 122 In each relative position of , the sub-opening area of the pendulum valve opening facing the two sub-cavities may be different. The baffle bisects the mixing cavity 103 to form two character cavities, and the opening of the bisect pendulum valve forms two sub-openings. It can be seen from Figure 3(a) to Figure 3(c) that the sub-opening on the left side of the curve corresponds to the sub-cavity on the left side The sub-openings on the right side of the curve correspond to the sub-cavities on the right. In the case of different openings of the pendulum valve openings, the areas of the opposite sub-openings of the two sub-cavities remain the same or similar.

In the embodiment of the present invention, the area of the opening and the sub-openings of the swing valve with different opening degrees of the swing valve can be measured. Referring to Table 3, Table 3 shows the opening area of the swing valve under different opening degrees of the swing valve (Open area), and A schematic diagram of the area S ₁ and the area S ₂ of the two sub-openings, and the unit of the area is mm ² . Wherein, different swing valve opening degrees can be represented by the relative position (Blade position) of the valve plate 112 and the swing valve body 122, including positions 100, 200, 300, 400, 500, 600, 700, 800, 900, and the area S ₁ is The area of the sub-opening on the right side of the baffle, the area S ₂ is the area of the sub-opening on the left side of the baffle, S ₁ +S ₂ is the area of the pendulum valve opening, S ₁ /(S ₁ +S ₂ ) represents the area S ₁ occupies the pendulum The ratio of the valve opening area. From this, it can be seen that the areas S ₁ and S ₂ of the two sub-openings are substantially the same, and a substantially consistent air pressure environment can be provided for the plurality of cavities 105 to be processed.

Table 3 shows the area of the swing valve opening and the sub-openings with different swing valve opening degrees.

In the embodiment of the present invention, in order to maintain the oxygen-free environment of the cavity 105 to be processed, a gas may be introduced into the cavity 105 to be processed, for example, nitrogen (N ₂ ), argon (Ar), etc., so it can be further Measure the air pressures in the two chambers 105 to be treated corresponding to different gas flow rates under different swing valve openings. Referring to Table 4, it is the air pressure in the chambers 105 to be treated corresponding to different nitrogen flow rates under different swing valve openings. , the position 100, 300, 500, 700, 900 is used as an example for illustration. The unit of nitrogen flow is sccm, and the unit of pressure is mTorr. Among them, the one before "/" is connected to the sub-cavity facing the area S ₂ The air pressure of the cavity 105 to be processed, and the air pressure of the cavity 105 to be processed connected to the sub _- cavity directly opposite to the area S1 after "/". It can be seen from this that the air pressure of the cavity to be processed 105 connected to the sub-cavity facing the area S ₁ is always close to the air pressure of the cavity to be processed 105 connected to the sub-cavity facing the area S ₂ . It can be seen from this that the gas pressures in the two to-be-processed chambers 105 are basically the same under different gas flow rates, and the pressure difference is less than 2%.

Table 4 shows the air pressure of the cavity to be treated corresponding to different nitrogen flow rates under different swing valve openings.

In this embodiment, the ratio state of the air pressure in the two to-be-processed cavities 105 after using different baffles is further measured, and the air pressure ratio is drawn as a broken line graph, as shown in FIG. The air pressure ratio of the cavity 105 to be processed that can be achieved by the board. It can be seen in FIG. 4 that when the baffle is curved in the plane where the swing valve 102 is connected, the air pressure difference in the two cavity 105 to be processed is 2%. Inside, when the baffle plate bisects the valve body 122 vertically, the air pressure difference in the two chambers 105 to be treated reaches 7.5%, so the curved plate can be used as the baffle plate to provide the same or similar atmospheric pressure.

Refer to Table 5 for the comparison of etching rates under multiple process conditions when using different baffles, including the process conditions of Source Only, the process conditions of high pressure and low bias, and the standard oxide ( Oxide STD) process conditions. Among them, A1 and A2 respectively represent the etching of the to-be-processed cavity 105 connected to the sub-cavity facing the area S ₁ and the to-be-processed cavity 105 connected to the sub-cavity facing the area S ₂ in the to-be-processed cavity 105 , respectively Rate, Mismatch represents the difference between A1 and A2, respectively. Wherein, the prior art is the test result when the flat plate is vertically bisected the pendulum valve opening, and the present invention is the test result of taking the opening of the curved plate to bisect the pendulum valve as an example. The etching rate difference in the processing chamber 105 is as high as 1.89%, and when the curved plate bisects the swing valve opening, the etching rate difference in the two to-be-processed chambers 105 is within 1%.

Table 5 shows the comparison results of etching rates under various process conditions using different baffles.

An embodiment of the present invention provides an air extraction device, which includes: a vacuum pump, a pendulum valve, a mixing chamber, and a separation part in the mixing chamber. The separating part divides the mixing chamber into a plurality of sub-chambers, each sub-chamber is connected to a cavity to be treated, the swing valve is connected to the mixing chamber and the vacuum pump, the swing valve includes a valve plate and a swing valve body, and the separating part is connected to the swing valve. , when the pendulum valve has a pendulum valve opening, the partition member divides the pendulum valve opening into a plurality of sub-openings, each of which faces a sub-chamber, and the pendulum valve opening is formed by the rotation of the valve plate relative to the pendulum valve body, and the partition member The shape is determined according to the rotation path of the valve plate. The air extraction device of the present invention adjusts the opening area of the pendulum valve by adjusting the rotation of the valve plate relative to the main body of the pendulum valve, and determines the shape of the partition member according to the rotation path of the valve plate, thereby determining the sub-opening in the opening of the pendulum valve that is opposite to the sub-cavity. Then, the vacuum pump is used to provide low air pressure for the cavity to be processed connected to the sub-cavity. At the same time, because the valve plate separates the mixing cavity, it can avoid the problem of gas in different cavity to be processed. The stability of the bulk environment and the processing quality of the semiconductor device in the chamber to be processed.

The air extraction device according to the embodiment of the present invention is described in detail above. In addition, the present invention further provides an air extraction method for performing air extraction processing by using the above air extraction device, including: determining the swing valve based on the air pressure demand of the cavity 105 to be processed. The opening is used to reduce the air pressure of the chamber 105 to be processed as shown by the vacuum pump 101 .

The present invention further provides a multi-chamber plasma processor, comprising: a plurality of adjacently arranged plasma processing chambers, and the above-mentioned air extraction device.

The above descriptions are only preferred embodiments of the present invention, and do not limit the present invention in any form. Although the present invention has been disclosed above with preferred embodiments, it is not intended to limit the present invention. Any person with ordinary knowledge in the art can make many possible changes and modifications to the technical solution of the present invention by using the methods and technical contents disclosed above without departing from the scope of the technical solution of the present invention, or modify it into an equivalent with equivalent changes. Example. Therefore, any simple modifications, equivalent changes and modifications made to the above embodiments according to the technical essence of the present invention without departing from the content of the technical solutions of the present invention still fall within the protection scope of the technical solutions of the present invention.

100, 200, 300, 400, 500, 600, 700, 800, 900: Position 101: Vacuum pump 102: Swing valve 103: Mixing chamber 104: Separation part 105: Chamber to be treated 106: Connection hole 112: Valve plate 122: Swing valve body S ₁ , S ₂ : Area

In order to more clearly illustrate the embodiments of the present invention or the technical solutions in the prior art, the following briefly introduces the accompanying drawings that are required in the description of the embodiments or the prior art. Obviously, the drawings in the following description are only some embodiments described in this specification, and for those with ordinary knowledge in the art, other drawings can be further obtained according to these drawings without creative work. . 1 is a schematic structural diagram of an air extraction device according to an embodiment of the present invention; Fig. 2(a), Fig. 2(b) and Fig. 2(c) are schematic diagrams of different opening degrees of a swing valve provided by an embodiment of the present invention; 3(a), 3(b) and 3(c) are schematic diagrams of different opening degrees of another swing valve according to an embodiment of the present invention; and FIG. 4 is a broken line diagram of the air pressure ratio in the cavity to be processed according to an embodiment of the present invention.

100,200,300: Location

112: valve plate

122: Swing valve body

S ₁ , S ₂ : Area

Claims (12)

An air pumping device, comprising: a vacuum pump, a swing valve, a mixing chamber and a separation part in the mixing chamber; The separating component divides the mixing cavity into a plurality of sub-cavities, and the plurality of sub-cavities are used to connect a plurality of to-be-processed cavities respectively; The swing valve is connected to the mixing chamber and the vacuum pump; the swing valve includes a valve plate and a swing valve body; The partition member is connected to the swing valve, and when the swing valve has a swing valve opening, the partition member divides the swing valve opening into a plurality of sub-openings, and the plurality of sub-openings are respectively facing the plurality of sub-cavities; the swing valve The opening is formed by the rotation of the valve plate relative to the swing valve body, and the shape of the partition member is determined according to the rotation path of the valve plate. The air extraction device according to claim 1, wherein the area difference between the plurality of areas corresponding to the opening of the pendulum valve and the plurality of sub-openings is less than or equal to a predetermined value. The air extraction device of claim 2, wherein the preset value is less than or equal to 10%. The air extraction device according to any one of claim 1 to claim 3, wherein the number of the plurality of sub-cavities, the plurality of sub-openings and the plurality of to-be-processed cavities is 2, and the partition member is a bezel. The air extraction device according to claim 4, wherein the baffle plate presents a straight line, a curved line or a broken line in a plane perpendicular to the opening of the pendulum valve. The air extraction device of claim 4, wherein the shape of the partition member in the plane connected to the pendulum valve is determined according to the rotation path of the valve plate. The air extraction device as claimed in claim 6, wherein the partition member presents a curve in a plane connected to the pendulum valve, the curve is a center of rotation of the valve plate, and the center of rotation is connected to the center of the circle. The distance from the center of the pendulum valve is the radius of the arc. The air extraction device as claimed in claim 6, wherein the partition member presents a folded line in the plane connected to the swing valve, and each line segment forming the folded line is at the same distance from a rotation center of the valve plate, and the folded line passes through the center of the pendulum valve. The air extraction device as claimed in claim 6, wherein the partition member presents a straight line in a plane connected with the swing valve, the straight line passing through the center of the swing valve and a rotation of the center of the swing valve and the valve plate The line connecting the center is vertical. The air extraction device according to any one of claim 1 to claim 3, wherein the area of the opening of the swing valve is determined based on the air pressure requirement of the cavity to be processed. An air extraction method, wherein the air extraction device described in any one of claim 1 to claim 10 is used, the air extraction method comprising: The area of the opening of the swing valve is determined based on the air pressure requirement of the cavity to be processed, so as to reduce the air pressure of the cavity to be processed by using the vacuum pump. A multi-chamber plasma processor, comprising: a plurality of plasma processing chambers arranged adjacently; and The air extraction device as described in any one of claim 1 to claim 10.

Images