TWM464437U - Wafer supporting device - Google Patents

Abstract

A wafer supporting device, used to support a plurality of wafers for a process, comprises an upper supporting member, a lower supporting member and a supporting base. Beyond the processing time, the lower supporting member is used to hold and store the wafers. When the wafers undergo a process, the supporting base withstands the bottom of the wafers to lift the wafers up thereby detaching the wafers from the lower supporting member so that the wafers lean on the upper supporting member to be held by the supporting base and the upper supporting member. As a result, when performing a process, processing fluids and reacting atmosphere can flow more smoothly and disperses more uniformly between the wafer supporting device and the wafers to react with the surface of the wafers homogeneously.

Description

Wafer carrier

The present invention relates to a wafer carrier device, and more particularly to a wafer carrier device that allows the bottom of the wafer to be completely detached from the lower support member.

In the semiconductor industry, wafer processing is undoubtedly one of the most critical aspects, which determine the properties of the wafer, such as changing the conductive properties, reducing internal defects or surface modification. For example, the wafer processing process may include thermal diffusion, chemical vapor deposition (eg, hafnium oxide or tantalum nitride thin film), an annealing process, or an etching process, and the like.

Thermal diffusion is mainly used for doping to form a PN junction, changing the conductive properties of the wafer, and can be applied to different components. A deposited film, such as an oxide or nitride film, is used as a buffer layer to reduce the difference in lattice constants; or as an insulating layer to form a dielectric material. Annealing eliminates internal stresses and defects in the wafer and improves doping density. As for the etching process, the wafer is subjected to a surface treatment for cleaning the surface, eliminating the damaged layer, thinning the thickness, or improving the flatness. Regardless of the purpose or means of the wafer process, multiple wafers need to be arranged on the wafer boat for batch processing.

In general, the boat has a plurality of micro-grooves on both sides and at the bottom, so that the wafer can be stably arranged thereon. Taking the deposition film process as an example, when an oxide film is deposited by the LPCVD process, a process gas (such as TEOS, tetraethoxy decane) is introduced into the high temperature horizontal furnace body and reacted with the wafer surface. However, the gap between the micro-groove and the wafer is narrow, so that the airflow is not easy to enter. As shown in FIGS. 8A and 8B, if the conventional wafer boat is used to carry the wafer W, the distance between the wafer W and the bottom of the wafer boat slot S _o The T _{o is} quite narrow, which causes some of the wafer surface to react with the gas incompletely, so that the thickness of the film deposited on the surface of the wafer is not uniform, especially the film thickness near the micro-groove is thin, resulting in a boat mark. There are significant differences in appearance and affect the quality of the wafer, so customer acceptance will also decline. In addition, in various processes, reaction environments such as other process fluids and temperature gradients may not be uniformly distributed or distributed, resulting in uneven reaction and affecting the appearance and properties of the wafer.

In view of this, a wafer carrier device capable of more uniformly reacting a process fluid and a reaction atmosphere with a wafer surface should be developed to replace the conventional wafer boat to solve the above problems.

The present invention provides a wafer carrier device whose support base can abut the bottom of the wafer and lift the wafer upward from the lower support member, thereby reducing the contact area between the wafer carrier and the wafer, and making the process flow, process fluid and reaction. The atmosphere is more smoothly distributed between the wafer and the wafer carrier and reacts with the wafer surface, solving the problem of uneven reaction.

In order to solve the problems of the prior art, an embodiment of the present invention provides a wafer carrier device for carrying a plurality of wafers for a process. The wafer carrier includes an upper support, a lower support, and a support base. The upper support is located above the wafer carrier. The lower support is located below the wafer carrier. At times other than the process, the lower support is used to carry multiple wafers. A support base is disposed at the bottom of the wafer carrier. During the process, the support base is placed against the bottom of the plurality of wafers to move the plurality of wafers upwardly away from the lower support and tilted against the upward support, and the plurality of wafers are carried by the support base and the upper support.

In the following, the specific embodiments and the accompanying drawings are explained in detail, and it is easier to understand the purpose, technical content, characteristics and effects achieved by the present invention.

[this creation]

1‧‧‧ wafer carrier

10‧‧‧Upper support

11‧‧‧Upper support rod

20‧‧‧lower support

21‧‧‧ Lower support rod

22‧‧‧Bottom support rod

30‧‧‧Support base

31‧‧‧through hole

G1‧‧‧Multiple grooves on the upper support rod 11

G2‧‧‧Multiple grooves of the lower support rod 21

G3‧‧‧Multiple grooves of the bottom support rod 22

Bottom of S‧‧G1

T‧‧‧ditch

W‧‧‧ wafer

W’‧‧‧ Figure 2B, the tilted wafer W

Θ‧‧‧ horizontal tilt angle

[prior art]

S _o ‧‧‧The bottom of the crystal boat in the traditional boat

The boat bottom of the groove S _o T _o ‧‧‧ the wafer W and the pitch of a conventional boat

W‧‧‧ wafer

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a wafer carrier device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

2A is a cross-sectional view of a wafer carrying device (without a support base) carrying a wafer before the process of the present invention.

2B is a wafer carrier device (including a support base) in the process of creating an embodiment of the present invention. A schematic cross-sectional view of a wafer.

3A is a partial longitudinal cross-sectional view of a wafer carrier carrying wafer before the process of the present invention.

3B is a partial longitudinal cross-sectional view of a wafer carrier carrying wafer in a process of the present invention.

4 is a schematic side view of a support base according to an embodiment of the present invention.

5A and FIG. 5B are schematic diagrams showing dark trenches at different angles of the wafer carrier device according to an embodiment of the invention.

6A, 6B, 6C, and 6D are schematic views of other embodiments of the creation according to Fig. 5A.

7A, 7B, and 7C are schematic views of other embodiments of the creation according to Fig. 5B.

8A and 8B are partial schematic views of a wafer boat carrier wafer in the prior art.

Please refer to FIG. 1. FIG. 1 illustrates a wafer carrier device for carrying a plurality of wafers for a process. The wafer carrier device 1 includes an upper support member 10, a lower support member 20, and a support base 30. The upper support 10 is located above the wafer carrier 1 . The lower support 20 is located below the wafer carrier 1 . As shown in FIG. 2A, the lower support member 20 (including the lower support rod 21 and the bottom support rod 22) is used to carry and store a plurality of wafers W at a time other than the process. 3A is a side cross-sectional view of FIG. 2A showing the wafer W erected above the bottom support bar 22 of the lower support member 20 at a time other than the process. As shown in FIGS. 2B and 3B, the support base 30 is disposed at the bottom of the wafer carrier 1 during the manufacturing process. The support base 30 is pressed against the bottom of the plurality of wafers W to move the plurality of wafers W away from the lower support 20 and tilted against the upper support 10, and the plurality of wafers W are carried by the support base 30 and the upper support 10. Therefore, the original wafer W is moved to the position of W' by the support base up (as shown in FIG. 2B). It should be noted that in order to keep the drawing clean, the lower support bar 21 is not shown in FIGS. 3A and 3B. In an embodiment, referring to FIG. 4, the top mask of the support base 30 has a horizontal tilt angle θ . Preferably, the horizontal tilt angle θ ranges from 5 to 40 degrees. Since the support base 30 has a height, it can be moved against the wafer W; and further has an inclination angle θ so that the wafer W can be tilted against the upward support 10. Preferably, as shown in FIG. 1 and FIG. 2B, the support base 30 has at least one through hole 31 extending vertically through the support base 30 for passing the process fluid and the reaction atmosphere to make the reaction more uniform.

Regarding the structure of the upper support 10, please refer to FIG. In an embodiment, the upper support member 10 includes at least two upper support rods 11 disposed opposite to the upper sides of the wafer carrier device 1 , and each upper support rod 11 has a plurality of grooves G1 spaced apart from each other. Used to support multiple wafers W. Preferably, the two upper support bars 11 of the upper support member 10 are arranged in parallel. Regarding the shape of the groove G1, preferably, the plurality of grooves G1 of each upper support rod 11 are plural Shaped groove (as shown in Figure 5B). Alternatively, a plurality of U-shaped grooves (as shown in FIG. 7A), a plurality of V-shaped grooves (as shown in FIG. 7B) or a plurality of trapezoidal tapered grooves (as shown in FIG. 7C) may be used.

Regarding the structure of the lower support member 20, please refer to FIG. In one embodiment, the lower support member 20 includes at least two lower support rods 21 disposed opposite to the lower sides of the wafer carrier device 1, and each of the lower support rods 21 has a plurality of grooves G2 spaced apart therefrom. To support a plurality of wafers W. Preferably, the two lower support bars 21 of the lower support member 20 are arranged in parallel. Preferably, referring to FIG. 1 , in an embodiment, the lower support member 20 further includes a bottom support rod 22 disposed at a central bottom of the wafer carrier 1 , and the bottom support rod 22 has a plurality of grooves G3 spaced apart. Arranged thereon to support a plurality of wafers W.

According to the above, during the non-process, the wafer carrier device 1 can be used to store the wafer W; during the process, the bottom edge of the wafer W can be separated from the groove (G2, G3) of the lower support member 20, The problem of uneven reaction due to the wafer W contacting the groove has been avoided. It can be understood that according to the concept of the present creation, that is, the technical feature of the wafer edge being separated from the support during the process, it can also be applied to different processes. In addition, the process may be a heat treatment process, such as a thermal diffusion process, a chemical vapor deposition process (such as hafnium oxide or tantalum nitride), an annealing process or an etching process, and the like. The purpose of this creation is to enable the wafer surface to react evenly during the process. For example, when the process of depositing a thin film is performed, the wafer carrying device 1 of the present invention can smoothly flow the process gas and uniformly react with the surface of the wafer, thereby avoiding uneven thickness of the deposited film due to the edge contact effect. If it is a high temperature annealing process, the surface of the wafer can be uniformly exposed to a high temperature atmosphere, so that the wafer can obtain uniform and good properties. Or, during the etching process, such as vapor phase etching or liquid phase etching, the wafer is surface-treated to clean the surface, remove the damaged layer, reduce the thickness, and improve the flatness. At this time, the process fluid can be evenly distributed to obtain good. Etching results. In addition, the wafer carrier device 1 of the present invention may be a quartz wafer carrier device, a silicon carbide (SiC) wafer carrier device or an alumina (Sapphire, Al ₂ O ₃ ) wafer carrier device, according to the needs of the user. And choose. These wafer carrier devices of different materials, in addition to high temperature resistance, are not easily reacted with process fluids and reaction atmospheres (for example, acid and alkali resistance), thereby reducing contamination during the process.

In addition to the above-described technical features that allow the bottom of the wafer W to be detached from the lower support member 20, the wafer carrier device 1 also has a special underdrain configuration in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention. Referring to FIG. 5A and FIG. 5B, each of the wafers W is respectively inclined in each of the grooves G1 of the two upper support bars 11 and each of the periphery of the wafer W and each of the two upper support bars 11 The bottom of the groove G1 has a gap for forming a dark trench T to provide a uniform flow distribution of the process fluid and the reaction atmosphere.

The traditional boat, the support members on both sides, fix the sides of the wafer in a relatively close manner, and does not consider the design of the dark groove. If the process fluid is introduced, the fluid cannot flow smoothly, and the surface of both sides of the wafer reacts unevenly with the fluid. In the process of depositing the film, the film thickness is uneven and a boatmark is generated. Similarly, in the case of high-temperature annealing, the properties of the wafer after annealing are affected by the unevenness of the high-temperature atmosphere. If etching is performed, uneven distribution of the etching fluid may result in undesirable etching results. According to the wafer carrying device of the present invention (Figs. 5A and 5B), the groove G1 provided has the feature of widening and deepening, and only the back surface near the periphery of the wafer W is inclined to the groove G1 during the process. On the inner wall, a line contact is formed, and a gap between the periphery of the wafer W and the bottom S of the groove G1 (ie, the bottom of the groove G1 pointed by the circumferential direction of the periphery of the wafer W) forms a wide and dark dark groove T. To make the process fluid and reaction atmosphere smooth Through and distribution, the surface near the periphery of the wafer W is allowed to react uniformly with the process fluid. The design of the groove G1 is based on the principle of being able to hold the wafer, and is widened as much as possible to obtain a dark trench T. Here, the extending direction of the dark groove T is the extending direction of the groove G1. Preferably, the bottom S of the plurality of grooves G1 extends downward in an arc shape (as shown in Fig. 5A). In addition, it may extend obliquely downward (as shown in FIG. 6A) or multiple segments downward (as shown in FIGS. 6B, 6C and 6D).

In summary, the wafer carrier device provided by the present invention can support the base against the bottom of the wafer and lift the wafer upward from the lower support member, thereby reducing the contact area between the wafer carrier and the wafer, and making the process fluid The reaction environment is more smoothly distributed between the wafer and the wafer carrier and reacts with the wafer surface to solve the problem of uneven reaction.

The embodiments and drawings described above are only for explaining the technical idea and characteristics of the present invention, and the purpose thereof is to enable those skilled in the art to understand the contents of the present invention and implement them according to the present invention. The scope of patents, that is, the equivalent changes or modifications made by the authors in accordance with the spirit of this creation, shall remain covered by the scope of this creation.

1‧‧‧ wafer carrier

10‧‧‧Upper support

11‧‧‧Upper support rod

20‧‧‧lower support

21‧‧‧ Lower support rod

22‧‧‧Bottom support rod

30‧‧‧Support base

31‧‧‧through hole

G1‧‧‧Multiple grooves on the upper support rod 11

G2‧‧‧Multiple grooves of the lower support rod 21

G3‧‧‧Multiple grooves of the bottom support rod 22

Claims (11)

A wafer carrier device for carrying a plurality of wafers for performing a process, the wafer carrier device comprising: an upper support member located above the wafer carrier device; and a lower support member located at the wafer carrier device a lower portion, wherein the lower support member is configured to carry the plurality of wafers at a time other than the process; and a support base is disposed at a bottom of the wafer carrier device, wherein the support base is used when the process is performed Abutting the bottoms of the plurality of wafers moves the plurality of wafers upwardly away from the lower support and obliquely toward the upper support, and the plurality of wafers are carried by the support base and the upper support. The wafer carrier device of claim 1, wherein the upper support member comprises at least two upper support rods disposed opposite to opposite sides of the wafer carrier device, and each of the upper support rods has a plurality of groove intervals. Arranged thereon to support the plurality of wafers. The wafer carrying device of claim 2, wherein the plurality of grooves of each of the upper support bars are plural a groove, a plurality of V-shaped grooves, a plurality of U-shaped grooves or a plurality of trapezoidal tapered grooves. The wafer carrying device of claim 2, wherein each of the wafers is respectively inclined in each of the two upper support bars, and the periphery of each of the wafers and the two uppers are The bottom of each of the grooves of the support bar has a gap for forming a ditch to provide a uniform flow distribution of the fluid and reaction atmosphere in the process. The wafer carrying device of claim 2, wherein the bottom of the plurality of grooves of each of the upper support bars extends vertically downwards, obliquely downwardly, curved downwardly or in multiple segments. The wafer carrier device of claim 1, wherein the lower support member comprises at least two lower support rods disposed opposite to opposite sides of the wafer carrier, and each of the lower support rods has a plurality of groove intervals. Arranged thereon to support the plurality of wafers. The wafer carrier device of claim 6, wherein the lower support member further comprises a bottom support rod disposed at a central bottom of the wafer carrier, and the bottom support rod has a plurality of grooves arranged at intervals thereon. Used to support the plurality of wafers. The wafer carrier device of claim 1, wherein the top mask of the support base has a horizontal tilt angle. The wafer carrier device of claim 8, wherein the horizontal tilt angle ranges from 5 to 40 degrees. The wafer carrier device of claim 1, wherein the support base has at least one through hole extending vertically through the support base. The wafer carrier device of claim 1, wherein the wafer carrier device is a quartz wafer carrier device, a silicon carbide wafer carrier device or an aluminum oxide wafer carrier device.