JPS628510B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a vacuum evaporation apparatus that enables mass processing of semiconductor wafers in a clean atmosphere.

A conventional vacuum evaporation apparatus used in a evaporation process for forming wiring of an integrated circuit is shown in FIGS. 1 and 2.
The first type (belgear type) has a wafer holder 2' and an electron gun 3' installed inside the bell gear 1' as shown in FIG. A liquid nitrogen trap 5', a water cooling valve 6', a diffusion pump 7', etc. are installed in the tank, and an oil rotary pump 9' is connected to the diffusion pump 7' via a fore valve 8'. In the figure, 10' indicates an elevator of the bell gear 1', and 11 indicates a feed through port. In the second type (hatch type), as shown in FIG. 2, a hatch 12' with a wafer holder 2' inside and an electron gun 3'
3'. In addition,
Components in FIG. 2 that are the same as those in FIG. 1 are designated by the same numbers and their explanations will be omitted.

In the case of any of the above types, the semiconductor wafer that serves as the material is either bergier 1' or hatch 1.
2' is opened and the wafer holder 2' is set therein, and after the vapor deposition is completed, the bell jar 1' or hatch 12 is opened again to take out the material. In order to prevent contamination of this material, the entire equipment for both types is installed in a clean room, but even though cleaning is required and extremely high cleanliness is required, Installing equipment that uses oil rotary pumps, oil diffusion pumps, etc. in a clean room is itself a problem, and in these days when integrated circuits are required to be highly integrated, conventional vapor deposition equipment is considered insufficient. ing.

Next, a decrease in the number of wafers processed per batch due to the increase in size of wafers has become a problem. The first type is suitable for increasing the number of sheets processed, but in this type, the evaporation source, that is, the electron gun 3'
It has the disadvantage that it is exposed to the atmosphere every time, and contamination of evaporated matter becomes a problem.

On the other hand, the second type has an evaporation source chamber that houses the electron gun 3' and a hatch 1 that serves as a data room.
Since the electron gun 3' is separated from the electron gun 2' by an isolation valve 13', and it is a so-called load-lock system, the electron gun 3' is always stored in a vacuum, and there is no problem as seen in the first type. , has the disadvantage that it is inferior to the first type in terms of the number of sheets processed per batch.

The present invention solves the above-mentioned drawbacks of conventional evaporation equipment.The present invention is a load-lock type vacuum evaporation equipment in which a data room and an evaporation source chamber are separated by an isolation valve, and the main body of the equipment is isolated from a clean room by a wall. installed in the maintenance room where
A front door for loading and unloading materials provided on the main body of the device is made to look into the clean room through a window hole opened in the wall, and a document holder installed in the material room is supported by a slide guide, allowing access to the clean room side. A back door for laminar flow that automatically opens and closes in conjunction with the front door is installed at the rear of the material room, and the evaporation source chamber installed below the material room can be moved up and down and from the bottom of the material room to the outside. This vacuum evaporation apparatus is characterized in that it is installed on a base plate that is installed to be removable.

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.
In Figure 3 A, B, and C, maintainer room 1
and a clean room 2 are separated by a wall 3, and the main body of the apparatus is installed inside the maintenance room 1. The main body of the apparatus consists of a gate valve 5, a cryopump 6, a material room 7, and an evaporation source chamber 8 installed below the material room 7. The material room 7 and the evaporation source room 8 are separated by an isolation valve 9. ing. An electron gun 10 is installed in the evaporation source chamber 8, and the electron gun 10 is held on the upper surface of a base plate 12 which is held movably up and down by a base plate elevating screw 11.

The material room 7 is a large rectangular box, with a back door 13 for laminar flow installed on the back side, and a front door 14 for opening and closing the front of the material room 7 attached to the front side so as to be openable and closable. It faces into a window hole opened in wall 3. The space between the opening of the window and the front of the material room is sealed to maintain airtightness.
A planetary type wafer holder 15 is installed in the upper part of the material room 7 so as to be able to slide along slide guides 18 provided on both sides thereof, and a substrate heating lamp 17 is further provided in the material room 7. . Note that 16 in the figure indicates a viewing port provided on the front door 14.

In this embodiment, a cryopump 6 is used in order to speed up ventilation and avoid oil contamination. The back door 13 for laminar flow is the front door 14
If the material room 7 is sealed when the front door 14 is opened, the laminar flow from the clean room side will flow into the evaporation source chamber 8 and cause a vortex. This is to prevent dust in the material room 7 from being stirred up.

In the present invention, the front door 14 is opened and the planetary type wafer holder 15 is pulled out from inside the data room 7.
The holder 15 holds the semiconductor substrate and the material room 7
The device is returned to the interior, the front door 14 is closed, and the vapor deposition process is performed as usual.
It is installed in the maintenance room 1 isolated from the clean room 2, and operations in the data room 7 are performed only by opening and closing the front door 14 through a window hole in the wall 3, so it is different from the conventional clean room. The problem of contamination has been completely eliminated, and by adopting a load-lock system in which the material room 7 and the evaporation source chamber 8 are separated by an isolation valve 9, the problem of contamination of evaporated matter has been eliminated. Since a large box is used as the chamber 7, a large amount of substrates can be processed at one time. Furthermore, since the semiconductor substrates are loaded into and taken out of the material room 7 by pulling out the wafer holder 15 toward the clean room along the slide guide 18, loading and unloading operations can be performed extremely easily. Further, according to the present invention, when cleaning the inside of the evaporation source chamber 8 and its surroundings, the cleaning can be easily done by lowering the evaporation source chamber 8 and pulling it out rearward.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

Figures 1 and 2 are front views showing an example of a conventional vacuum evaporation apparatus, and Figures 3A, 2B, and 2C are views of an embodiment of the apparatus of the present invention, where A is a plan view and B is a side view. , C is a front view. 1... Maintenance room, 2... Clean room, 3... Wall, 7... Data room, 8... Evaporation source room, 9... Isolation valve, 10... Electron gun, 13...
...Back door for laminar flow, 14...Front door, 15...
...Wafer holder, 18...Slide guide.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1 In a load-lock type vacuum evaporation device in which the data room and the evaporation source room are separated by an isolation valve,
The main body of the device is installed in a maintenance room separated from the clean room by a wall, and the front door provided in the main body of the device for loading and unloading materials is exposed into the clean room through a window hole opened in the wall. Material holders installed in the room are supported by slide guides to allow access to the clean room side, and a back door for laminar flow that automatically opens and closes in conjunction with the front door is provided at the rear of the material room. A vacuum evaporation device characterized in that an evaporation source chamber installed below is installed on a base plate installed so that it can be moved up and down and taken out from the bottom of the material room to the outside.