JP3350107B2 - Single wafer type vacuum processing equipment - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an apparatus for manufacturing semiconductor devices and electronic parts, and more particularly to a method for carrying out processing such as etching and CVD on a substrate in a vacuum, and carrying the substrate into the apparatus from the atmosphere. The present invention relates to a load lock mechanism.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art For example, a conventional single-wafer vacuum processing apparatus is disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 63-45467. Also, a device disclosed in JP-A-59-94435 in which the processing surface of a substrate is inverted and conveyed from a load lock mechanism, and a patent publication in which a plasma reaction chamber and a substrate access chamber are formed by moving a disk up and down using a ring-shaped gasket. 63-24412.

[0003]

As described above, a load lock mechanism for ascending and forming a small room and carrying the substrate between the atmosphere and vacuum through the small room usually lifts and holds the substrate. A lift or pusher is provided. This is necessary for transferring a substrate provided in the atmosphere to and from a handling mechanism in a vacuum. By the way, what is originally required for the load lock mechanism is to evacuate the small room in a short time and return to the atmospheric pressure in a short time. Evacuation, handling, opening to the atmosphere, and vacuuming of this small room in a shorter time than the time required to process the substrate
If the series of operations for the load lock of the handling is not completed, the production capacity of the entire apparatus is reduced. Also, in order to prevent impurity gases such as moisture adhering to the surface of the small room from being brought into the device when evacuating from the atmosphere, the surface area in the small room should be made as small as possible, and the volume and communication with the vacuum chamber should be minimized. It goes without saying that the ultimate pressure is reduced. For this reason, when the single-wafer type load lock mechanism shown in the conventional example is used, it is necessary to evacuate and release to the atmosphere as quickly as possible within a range in which foreign matter is not wound up. At this time, because it has the aforementioned pusher (lift),
There has been a problem that the substrate moves during evacuation or the substrate is attracted to the mounting surface when released to the atmosphere.

[0004]

This is because the gas in the pusher portion accommodated on the lower surface of the substrate cannot be smoothly exhausted, or the gas leaked due to the excessively good adhesion between the substrate and the mounting surface. This is caused by being unable to enter the space of the pusher. Of course, in some devices, grooves are provided on the mounting surface of the substrate so that the inflow of gas can be made as smooth as possible, but it is not preferable from the viewpoint of reducing the surface area described above, and the pusher is not preferable. The dust generated by the sealing member is brought into the small room, which is not always a good solution.

For this reason, in the present invention, the pusher itself is eliminated by devising the shape of the substrate mounting surface. In the case of transferring a substrate in a vacuum, for example, when transferring a substrate in a load lock section to an arm for hand rig provided in a vacuum of the apparatus, mounting the substrate forming a small room When the surface (stage) is lowered, it is temporarily stopped at an intermediate position. Next, the arm is inserted into the lower portion of the substrate so as not to interfere with the substrate mounting surface, and then the substrate mounting surface is lowered again to the lowermost position. When the substrate is transported in the opposite direction, the substrate can be received on the substrate mounting surface by performing the reverse operation. After receiving the substrate, the substrate mounting surface is raised to the uppermost level to form a small room, and N ₂ gas or the like is introduced into the small room to return to the atmospheric pressure. Next, the gate valve provided on the side of the small room is opened, and the substrate is taken out into the atmosphere by a loader provided in the atmosphere. In this case, the loader itself has a function of being inserted under the substrate and ascending, thereby eliminating the need to provide a pusher. Conversely, when loading the substrate into the small room from the loader side, the loader may enter the substrate mounting surface and then descend to place the substrate. In addition, even in the case of this method, two separate ones for loading and unloading the load lock section are separately provided for the single wafer type vacuum processing apparatus, or one load lock is provided. There is no problem if the loading and unloading can be performed in the section.

[0006]

According to the method described above, an arc is formed on the lower surface of the substrate.
By providing a space through which a gas for inserting a memory or a loader can be sufficiently moved in and out, the substrate does not shift during vacuum evacuation and does not adhere to the mounting surface after being released to the atmosphere. Also, there is no need to provide a pusher in the lower surface of the substrate, in other words, in a small room formed for a load lock that repeats atmospheric vacuum. A small room suitable for a lock can be formed.

[0007]

An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIG. FIG. 1 is a schematic view showing a cross section of a load lock portion of a single wafer type vacuum processing apparatus. 1 is a load lock chamber, 2
Is a stage, which can be driven up and down by 3 'which is the axis of the third cylinder. The cylinder 3 is the cylinder 4
And the housings are connected to each other, and the drive shaft 4 ′
Is held and the position is fixed. A so-called double rod cylinder was used. Reference numeral 5 denotes an arm for transporting a substrate in a vacuum, which has a shape in which the substrate mounting portion is picked up at a lower portion of a tip of a member which swivels. The driving device for turning the arm 5 is 6. 7 is a transfer chamber,
Reference numeral 13 denotes a lid of the transfer chamber 7. Reference numeral 9 denotes a gate valve having a structure capable of opening a rectangular opening when the substrate is taken in and out of the atmosphere, and a detailed internal structure is omitted. A substrate 10 is conveyed, and is conveyed horizontally with the processing surface up. Reference numeral 11 denotes a maintenance lid for the load lock chamber 1, which has a structure in which Nozokimad 12 is incorporated. Reference numeral 19 denotes a lid for incorporating the stage 2, to which a bracket 20 for supporting the drive shaft 4 'is attached. Reference numerals 21 and 22 denote a seal mechanism for rotating directly and a rotary seal mechanism, respectively. In this embodiment, double O-rings are provided. In FIG. 1, those indicated by black dots are seal materials, and are not particularly numbered for explanation.

[0008] Load lock chamber 1 and transfer chamber 7
May be integrated and formed of the same member. Further, the arm 5 is not limited to the shape of the present embodiment, and may have a simple flat plate structure as long as it can transfer the substrate 10 without interfering with the stage 2. Although the double rod cylinder is used in this embodiment for driving the stage 2, a drive mechanism using electric power may be used. In this embodiment, the arm 5 is driven by turning and transported, but may be a robot arm having a plurality of joints. Further, the present invention is not changed at all by using a structure using a bellows or a motion introducing machine for the seal mechanism.

As another method, a mechanism for raising and lowering the rotating arm itself can be added to enable the transfer of the substrate to and from the stage, but the arm is a process provided at another position. It is also responsible for carrying in and out of the chamber, and in these process chambers, the arm 5 is moved up and down to receive the substrate in order to optimize the shape of the substrate mounting surface in order to stabilize the processing. The shape of the substrate mounting surface that is convenient for passing cannot be achieved. For this reason, in transferring a substrate in a process chamber, it is common to lift and transport the substrate using a plurality of thin pin-shaped pushers in order to minimize the influence on the process processing. There is no need for a mechanism to move up and down. Further, driving the arm in the horizontal and vertical directions complicates the mechanism, which is disadvantageous in terms of reliability. For this reason, in the present embodiment, the stage 2 is in charge of the vertical movement for transferring the substrate in the load lock chamber 2.

Next, the operation of taking out the substrate 10 mounted on the arm 5 in vacuum into the atmosphere will be described with reference to FIGS. First, as shown in FIG.
Is operated to insert the arm 5 on the stage 2.
At this time, respective drive shafts for the cylinders 3 and 4,
3 'and 4' are retracted, and stage 2 is at the bottom. Next, as shown in FIG. 2, the cylinder 4 is driven to project the drive shaft 4 'downward, in other words, the drive shaft 4' is fixed to the bracket 20.
And cylinders 3 and 4 are
Are connected, which results in cylinder 3 and syringe
The stage 2 is raised by raising the solder 4 as a whole, and the substrate 10 is received by the upper substrate mounting portion. By retracting the arm 5 from this state as shown in FIG. 3 and projecting the drive shaft 3 ′ of the cylinder 3 upward, the stage 2 is raised to a position where it is sealed at an outer peripheral portion other than the substrate mounting surface, and the small room is raised. 8 is formed. Needless to say, the small room 8 is provided with a leak mechanism (not shown) for returning from vacuum to atmospheric pressure and an exhaust means (not shown) for evacuating from atmospheric pressure. The leak mechanism is operated in the state of FIG. 3 to return the inside of the small room 8 to the atmospheric pressure. After that, the gate valve 9 is opened and taken out by the loader 14 provided in the atmosphere. Since the loader 14 can be driven in both the horizontal direction and the vertical direction, the loader 14 can penetrate below the substrate 10 and move upward while driving the vacuum chuck to grasp the substrate 10 and move it in the horizontal direction to take it out.

When the substrate is carried into the vacuum from the atmosphere, the loader 14 is operated in reverse and the substrate is put on the substrate mounting portion of the stage 2, and then the gate valve 9 is turned on. It is closed to form a small room 8, and the chamber 8 is evacuated using the above-described exhaust means. A certain pressure (for example, from vacuum to 100Pa)
After evacuating, the stage 2 is lowered to the intermediate position, the arm 5 is inserted, the stage 2 is lowered to the lowermost stage, and the substrate can be mounted on the arm 5.

Next, a second embodiment will be described with reference to FIGS. In FIG. 4, the description of the same numbers as in FIG. 1 is omitted. Reference numeral 3 denotes a drive shaft of the cylinder 3, which has a hollow interior and is continuously penetrated to the surface of the stage 2 ', and is connected to 16 valves at the lower portion. 17 is a flexible tube, which is a small room 8
A drive shaft 3 ゛ was provided as an exhaust pipe for the above. By adopting this structure, the exhaust port of the exhaust means of the small 8 supra enables disposed to Rukoto directly under coaxially with respect to the substrate 10, the case in which the exhaust port of the conventional side walls Small room 8 compared
The flow of the airflow due to the exhaust in the inside became smooth, and the frequency of displacement of the substrate due to the exhaust could be reduced. FIG. 5 shows the inside of the small room 8 viewed from the transfer chamber 7 side.
FIG. 6 is a view from above the substrate 10 . The substrate mounting portion of the stage 2 ′ was formed by holding the periphery of the substrate at 15, and literally, the periphery of the substrate 10 was supported at the lower portion. In the present embodiment, the substrate mounting portion of the stage 2 ′ is provided so as to protrude like the substrate periphery restrainer 15, but the base material itself of the stage 2 ′ is cut and the space where the loader 14 enters or the substrate 10 is placed May be formed. Rather, it is preferable from the viewpoint of reducing the surface area.

[0013]

According to the present embodiment, there is no sliding member such as a pusher immediately below the substrate 10 when the small room 8 is formed and vacuum evacuation or atmospheric pressure leak occurs, and thus no dust is generated. This is advantageous for substrate processing, and the ability to quickly evacuate and leak can reduce production capacity.
There is a merit not to let .

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a longitudinal sectional view of a main part of a single-wafer vacuum processing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a vertical cross-sectional view of FIG. 1 in a state where a substrate has been received by a stage.

FIG. 3 is a longitudinal sectional view showing a state in which the stage is raised to form a small room after the arm is retracted in FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is a longitudinal sectional view of a main part of a single wafer type vacuum processing apparatus according to another embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a side view of the stage in FIG. 4;

FIG. 6 is a plan view of the stage in FIG. 4;

[Explanation of symbols]

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Load lock chamber, 2 ... Stage, 3 ... Cylinder, 4 ... Cylinder, 5 ... Arm, 6 ... Arm turning drive, 7 ... Transfer chamber, 8 ... Small room, 9 ... Gate Valve, 10: substrate, 11: lid, 12: nozokimado, 13
... lid 14 ... loader, 15 ... substrate periphery, 16 ... valve, 17 ... flexible tube, 18 ... joint, 19 ...
Lid, 20: bracket, 21: seal mechanism, 22: rotary seal mechanism.

 ──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continuing on the front page (72) Inventor Hiroyuki Nanada 794, Higashi-Toyoi, Kazamatsu, Kudamatsu-shi, Yamaguchi Prefecture Inside the Hitachi, Ltd.Kasato Plant (72) Akitaka Makino 794, Higashi-Toyoi, Kazamatsu-shi, Yamaguchi In the Kasado Factory (72) Inventor Naoyuki Tamura 794, Higashi-Toyoi, Kazamatsu-shi, Yamaguchi Pref. In the Kasado Factory, Hitachi, Ltd. (56) References JP 4-91885 (JP, A) JP 2-A 196441 (JP, A) JP-A-4-157775 (JP, A) JP-A-4-69917 (JP, A) JP-A-1-84428 (JP, U)

Claims (2)

(57) [Claims] A load lock chamber provided on a transfer chamber; a stage for vertically transferring a substrate between the transfer chamber and the load lock chamber; a stage raised and the load lock chamber;
Vacuum to atmosphere in a small room surrounded by gate valves
Evacuation from atmospheric pressure with leak mechanism to restore pressure
And a load lock mechanism provided with an exhaust unit for transferring a substrate in a vacuum provided in the transfer chamber.
For carrying means, the stage forms the small room at the uppermost position, the substrate is placed on the stage in the load lock chamber, the stage is lowered after the small room is decompressed, The stage is temporarily stopped at a position between the uppermost stage and the lowermost stage, and after the transfer means for transferring the substrate in vacuum has moved to the lower part of the substrate, the stage is further lowered, and the stage is moved to the substrate. In the vacuum
A stage driving means for transferring the substrate to a transfer means for transferring a substrate . 2. A load lock chamber provided on a transfer chamber, a stage for vertically transferring a substrate between the transfer chamber and the load lock chamber, an elevated stage and the load lock chamber,
Vacuum to atmosphere in a small room surrounded by gate valves
Evacuation from atmospheric pressure with leak mechanism to restore pressure
And a load lock mechanism provided with an exhaust unit for transferring a substrate in a vacuum provided in the transfer chamber.
Conveying means and the conveying means for conveying the substrate in the vacuum the substrate for
In the state where the substrate is placed, the stage is raised after moving to the upper portion of the substrate mounting portion of the stage, and the substrate in the vacuum is
After the substrate on the transfer means for transferring the substrate is pushed up and received, the stage is temporarily stopped at a position between the uppermost stage and the lowermost stage, and the substrate in the vacuum is transferred.
And a stage driving means for moving the stage up after the transfer means has been retracted and forming the small room at the uppermost position of the stage.