JPS6038017B2 - heat treatment furnace - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention mainly relates to improvements in heat treatment furnaces used in the manufacturing process of semiconductor devices, particularly diffusion furnaces used when diffusing impurities into semiconductor wafers.

A diffusion furnace is constructed so that a heating wire is wrapped around the outer circumference of a heat-resistant tube such as quartz, and impurity gas is passed through one side of the tube, and a semiconductor wafer is placed inside the tube. Those adapted to accommodate supported cartridges are commonly used.

The core tubes of the diffusion furnace are installed in multiple stages due to mass production, but the upper core tube is located at a high position that is out of reach of workers, making it difficult to work, and in some cases, cartridges may fall. There is a risk of causing

In addition, a clean bench is attached to the diffusion furnace,
This clean bench has a wide opening, so when a person works on it, the dirty (floating dust) atmosphere from the outside gets sucked in. Diffusion work may result in defective products,
It has the disadvantage of causing variations in quality. The present invention has been achieved in order to eliminate the drawbacks of the conventional diffusion furnace, and allows the work to be carried out by mechanically carrying a diffusion jig into the furnace entrance and exit located at a high position and carrying it out. The purpose of this project is to improve the quality of the product, as well as to eliminate contaminated air by incorporating the space for loading and unloading the jig into the clean room, thereby obtaining a high-quality product.

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings, but the present invention is not limited thereto, and may be modified within the scope of its technical idea.
FIG. 1 is an exploded perspective view of a diffusion furnace. The diffusion furnace 1 is composed of a supply section 2 and a furnace body section 3, and the main part of the present invention relates to improvement of this supply section. The supply section 2 has a clean bench 4, and a door 5 provided below the clean bench 4 is opened and closed to allow the objects to be processed to enter and exit.

A belt conveyor 6 is provided in a place where the door 5 is opened, an o-der/unloader 7 is provided at one end of the belt conveyor 6, and a jig presser 8 that moves in the direction of the arrow is provided in front of the belt conveyor 6. A pillar 9 is provided on the side inside the clean bench 4, and the cartridge transfer device 10 is configured to move up and down along this pillar.

A closing part 11 is provided on the wall of the clean bench 4, from which an arm 12 of a boat loader projects, and a port paddle 13 is provided at the end of the opening part 11 so as to enter and exit the reactor core tube 14.

As shown in FIG. 2, the cartridge transfer device 10 has a driving section 15 fixed to a guide plate 10' that engages with the pillar 9, and moving sections 16 and 17, and these moving sections move as shown by the arrows. The cartridge is guided onto the boat loader 13 by moving laterally, and the guide plate 10' is moved up and down to place the cartridge on the boat loader 13.

A chuck 18 is provided below the moving part 17 as shown in FIG.
, 18' are provided, and are configured to be opened and closed as shown by the arrows to grasp or release the cartridge 20 containing a large number of wafers 19.

The boat loader is a device that inserts the board paddle 13 that supports the cartridge into the core tube 14, places the cartridge 20 in the core tube 14, and takes out the cartridge 20 after completing diffusion. It is configured to exercise automatically according to a time schedule.

Next, the operation of the device of the present invention will be explained.

First, when the door 5 is opened and a cartridge containing a plurality of wafers is placed on the belt conveyor 6, the belt conveyor 6 moves in the direction of the arrow and is stored in the loader/unloader 7.

After that, the presser foot 8 is pushed out to prevent the cartridge from moving. Next, the cartridge transfer device 10 descends and grips the cartridge 20 by operating the chucks 18, 18' as shown in FIG.

Thereafter, the cartridge transfer unit moves upward as shown by arrow A in FIG. 4, selects the designated optimal furnace body, and stops at that location. Next, as shown in FIG. 2, the cartridge transfer sections 16 and 17 move along the path indicated by arrow B in FIG.
' and place the cartridge 20 on the board paddle 13.

Then, this boat paddle 13 moves in the direction of arrow c under the action of the boat loader and moves the cartridge 20 into the furnace tube 14.
Transport inside. After the above operation, the boat paddle 13 moves in the opposite direction of the arrow c and returns to its original position, and the chuck 18
, 18' are opened, the cartridge moving section 10 rises slightly, returns the moving section from the state shown in FIG. 2 to the state shown in FIG. 1, and returns to its original position.

The cartridge supporting the wafer that has been spread is moved in the direction of arrows D, E, and F in FIG. 4 by the operation of the boat paddle 13 and the cartridge integration inner part 10, and the cartridge is placed on the loader/unloader 7. Referring again to FIG. 1, 21 is a boat loader drive unit that drives the arm 12 left and right.

22 is a clean air generation part, and the air obtained by this is sent to the jet nozzle 23.
Supply to a cleaner bench.

Reference numeral 24 denotes a control section and an operation section, which control the entire diffusion furnace.

Further, 25 is a drive device for the cartridge moving section, and 26 is a clean air blowing section. Keeping the inside of the clean bench clean is important for improving product quality, but for this purpose, sufficient care must be taken when loading and unloading cartridges into and out of the apparatus.

FIG. 5 shows another embodiment in which the belt conveyor 6 is extended to the side of the clean bench 4 to form a protrusion 4'.
The cartridge may be taken in and taken out by opening and closing a door provided on this protrusion.

In this case, if guide rails 27 are provided on both sides of the belt conveyor 6 and projections are provided on the conveyor belt so that the cartridges can be hooked and transported, the cartridges can be transported stably. As shown in the figure, the device according to the present invention is composed of a cartridge conveying device such as a belt conveyor, a cartridge moving device, a boat paddle, a clean air supply port, a door that seals the clean bench, and a control device for the entire diffusion furnace. Therefore, the following effects are achieved.

[A] Since the cartridge is supplied to the core tube of the diffusion furnace and the wafer after diffusion is taken out, most of the work by the operator can be omitted. {o} Since the cartridge supply section is surrounded by clean air in a clean bench, there is no scattering of dust, which improves the quality of semiconductor devices and prevents the production of defective products as much as possible.

Complete automation standardizes the work and allows accurate diffusion processing at all times, making it possible to manufacture semiconductor devices of excellent quality.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a cutaway perspective view showing the main parts of the diffusion furnace of the present invention. Fig. 2 is an explanatory diagram of the operation of the cartridge transfer section, Fig. 3 is a diagram showing the state in which the cartridge is supported by the chuck, Fig. 4 is a diagram showing the transport path of the cartridge, and Fig. 5 is a diagram of the cartridge feeding and ejecting section. FIG. 7 is a perspective view showing another structure.
1... Diffusion furnace, 2... Supply section, 3...
...furnace body, 4...clean bench, 4'...projection of clean bench, 5...door, 6...belt conveyor, 7...loader/unloader, 8...presser,
9... Pillar, 10... Cartridge transfer device, 1
0'... Information board, 11... Sekiguchi section, 12... Boat loader arm, 13... Boat paddle, 14...
... Furnace tube, 15 ... Drive section, 16, 17.
...Movement part, 16, 18'...Chick, 19...
...Wafer, 20...Cartridge, 21"""Boat loader drive section, 22...Clean air generation section, 2
3... Air outlet, 24... Control section and operation section, 25... Cartridge transfer section drive device, 26... Clean air blower section , 27...Guidance rail. Figure 1 Figure 2 Figure 3 Figure 4 Figure 5

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A furnace body section in which a plurality of horizontally elongated furnace core tubes are provided in the vertical direction, a clean bench integrally formed with the furnace body section along the extending direction of the furnace body section, and a workpiece to be processed in the plurality of furnace body sections. a plurality of to-be-processed material supply mechanisms provided corresponding to each of the plurality of reactor core tubes and along an extending direction of the plurality of reactor core tubes for supplying the plurality of to-be-processed objects to each of the reactor core tubes; a workpiece vertical movement mechanism that moves the workpiece up and down in a direction transverse to the extending direction of the furnace body in order to supply the workpiece to each of the supply mechanisms, and the plurality of workpieces A heat treatment furnace characterized in that a supply mechanism and a processing object vertical movement mechanism are provided within the clean bench.