Heating – Work feeding – agitating – discharging or conveying... – Removable furnace bottom section or kiln cart
Reexamination Certificate
1999-04-06
2002-12-10
Lu, Jiping (Department: 3749)
Heating
Work feeding, agitating, discharging or conveying...
Removable furnace bottom section or kiln cart
C432S253000, C118S728000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06491518
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
A. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus for treating ULSI (ultra large scale integration) semiconductors such as a Si wafer in specific atmospheric conditions, such as high-temperature and high-pressure conditions. It, more particularly, relates to an apparatus for treating semiconductor substrates typically in units of one lot made up of 13 or 25 sheets of substrates. Still more particularly, the invention relates to a high-temperature and high-pressure gas furnace for use in treatment of semiconductors to remove voids existing thereon chiefly by the use of inert gas pressure, and a method for treating a wafer on which a wiring film of aluminum alloy or copper alloy has been formed by a PVD method (physical vapor deposition), by applying pressure of an inert gas thereto, the so-called pressure fill process of wiring film (high-pressure reflow process).
B. Description of the Related Art
Fabricating processes of semiconductor wafers are known. Such processes include pressure treatment with the use of gas pressure, methods to treat a wafer under pressure in an inert gas, where the wafer includes a wiring film of aluminum alloy or copper alloy is formed through the PVD method, the so-called pressurized fill process of the wiring film (high-pressure reflow process).
Further, as a process for treating semiconductors is known which includes the use of high-pressure gas up to the level of several tens of atmospheric pressure, and a high-pressure oxidizing method causing the surface of the Si wafer to oxidize forming an insulating layer is known. In this case, because the objective of the process is oxidization, oxygen or water is naturally mixed in the pressurized medium.
In the known method, an apparatus is known performs high-pressure treatment of the semiconductor one by one as each wafer has gone through the PVD process, i.e., that of the so-called single wafer cluster tool type. As disclosed in the gazette of Japanese Patent Laid-open No. Hei 7-193063, for example, the apparatus is configured to process a wafer moved into a lock chamber by moving it through a series of processing modules disposed around a core chamber one after another by means of a transport arm within the core chamber. One of the modules is a pressure treating module directly mounted on the core chamber. An example of such a detailed structure of a pressure module is proposed in the gazette of Japanese Patent Publication No. Hei 7-502376.
An apparatus for use in the latter method is disclosed in the gazette of Japanese Patent Laid-open No. Hei 4-234119 is known. Although this apparatus is for a completely different use from the use of the present invention, it is mentioned here just for reference as an example of known apparatuses because both are of similar structure.
Namely, this apparatus is an apparatus for treating semiconductor wafer comprising: a pressure vessel; a hollow member with a treating chamber incorporated therein disposed within the pressure vessel, said hollow member having an opening at the lower portion thereof for receiving the wafers when said pressure vessel and said hollow member move a plurality of wafers as a unit each time of treatment from a position at the lower portion of said pressure vessel into said treating chamber; movement means capable of moving vertically with respect to said pressure vessel for shutting said opening; means coupled with said hollow member for introducing a pressurized oxidizing agent into said treating chamber; means for introducing a pressurized inert gas into said pressure vessel; means for heating the oxidizing agent within said treating chamber; means for cooling said hollow member after the wafers have gone through treatment within said treating chamber; and means coupled with said pressure vessel and said hollow member for equalizing pressures of the inert gas and the oxidizing agent and coupled with the body of the apparatus for equalizing the pressures of the inert gas and the oxidizing agent, thereby essentially separating said inert gas from said oxidizing agent.
As an apparatus for treatment under high-temperature and high-pressure conditions by using a pressurized gas, a hot isotropic pressure apparatus (HIP apparatus) is known and there is one, as an example, that is disclosed in the gazette of Japanese Patent Laid-open No. Sho 63-41787.
The apparatus of the single wafer type mentioned first above (the first prior art example) is different in the manner of treatment from the present invention. Therefore, it has a greater problem resulting from the treatment itself rather than that of a defect in the structure of the apparatus. Namely, in the first prior art example, each wafer is processed on a one-by-one basis and because of the cycle of time required, the process cannot be performed at the same rate a PVD process, which is performed in parallel. Therefore, the first processing of each wafer slows down the overall process. Therefore, components including the sealing structure and material at the opening and shutting portion of the vessel are subjected to very severe conditions and therefore it is quite difficult to secure the safety and reliability on the treatment.
The high pressure oxidization apparatus mentioned second above (the second prior art example) performs operation with inert gas introduced therein when no oxidizing agent is introduced. Here, since the apparatus of this kind is originally designed for an oxidization process, air unavoidably entering the high pressure vessel when articles to be treated are taken into and out of the vessel has not been considered, i.e., no consideration has been given to mixing in of oxygen accompanying the mixing in of air. Therefore, when it is intended to operate the apparatus as a high-temperature and high-pressure gas furnace that will process semiconductors, as the articles of fabrication in the present invention, in the conditions close to a completely inert environment, especially in the environment free from oxygen, it appears to provide unsatisfactory results.
Lately, copper has come more attractive than Al as the material of the wiring film in view of its low electric resistivity and its characteristics against EM (Electron Migration) and it is desirable to also apply the pressurized fill process to the wafer after the film has been formed thereon in the fabrication of ULSI which are getting more and more micro-miniaturized. In this case, when the wafer after the film has been formed thereon is handled in the atmospheric air, it is feared that the copper film is oxidized and the pressurized fill process is thereby disturbed. In any of the related arts mentioned above, no consideration has been given to countermeasures against such oxidization.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The invention is aimed at the provision of high-temperature and high-pressure gas furnace in which the above enumerated problems are solved. More concretely, it is an object of the invention to provide a high-temperature and high-pressure gas furnace capable of performing, on a batch system, the pressurized fill process of the wiring film on a plurality (great number) of semiconductor substrates, typically Si wafers, set in the so-called shelved arrangement.
In order to solve the above enumerated problems, this invention provides an apparatus for high-temperature and high-pressure treatment for treating substrates to be treated in an atmosphere of a high-temperature and high-pressure gas which comprises: a pressure vessel; a treating chamber within the pressure vessel; a gas passage for introducing a high pressure gas into the pressure vessel; a heater provided within the treating chamber; a supporting jig for setting the substrates to be treated in a shelved arrangement, the supporting jig allowing a plurality of the substrates to be treated to be inserted into the treating chamber; and a bell-shaped casing surrounding the supporting jig inserted into the treating chamber.
By adopting such a configuration, it is possible to process a plurality of the substrates as
Fujikawa Takao
Ishii Takahiko
Kadoguchi Makoto
Narukawa Yutaka
Kabushiki Kaisha Kobe Seiko Sho
Lu Jiping
Oblon & Spivak, McClelland, Maier & Neustadt P.C.
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