Heating – Work feeding – agitating – discharging or conveying... – Removable furnace bottom section or kiln cart
Patent
1998-06-24
2000-03-28
Ferensic, Denise L.
Heating
Work feeding, agitating, discharging or conveying...
Removable furnace bottom section or kiln cart
414804, 414938, 414939, 414940, B65G 4907
Patent
active
060423722
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a heat treatment apparatus for heat treating a target substrate, such as a semiconductor wafer, and more particularly, to a hot-wall type vertical heat treatment apparatus.
2. Discussion of the Background
In the manufacture of semiconductor devices, various heat treatment apparatuses are used in order to apply various treatments, such as oxidation, diffusion, CVD, and so forth, to semiconductor wafers, i.e., the target substrates. As one of such heat treatment apparatuses, there is known, for instance, a single-substrate-processing type in which, a lord-lock chamber, i.e., a preparatory vacuum chamber connected to a treatment chamber, i.e., a heat treatment furnace, is disposed, and, in this preparatory vacuum chamber, a wafer transfer mechanism is provided. In the case of this heat treatment apparatus, by previously setting the interior of the lord-lock chamber at approximately the same pressure as that in the heat treatment furnace, a wafer can be transferred in and out of the heat treatment furnace by opening the furnace throat without resetting the pressure in the heat treatment furnace to the atmospheric pressure; and thus, the shortening of the required time and the improvement in throughput can be realized.
By the way, the transfer mechanism etc. are directly mounted in the preparatory vacuum chamber. In case that the heat treatment furnace is of the so-called cold wall type in which a wafer is directly heated by lamp heating or the like, the preparatory vacuum chamber is hard to be thermally affected from the heat treatment furnace. Accordingly, even if the transfer mechanism is directly mounted in the preparatory vacuum chamber, such an arrangement does not cause problem so much.
However, in case that, in the heat treatment apparatus, the heat treatment furnace is of the so-called hot-wall type in which the peripheral surface of the reaction tube is surrounded by a heater wire and a heat insulation layer to heat the whole interior of the furnace, the preparatory vacuum chamber is thermally affected by the radiant heat when the thermally treatment furnace is opened. Therefore, where the transfer mechanism is mounted directly in the preparatory vacuum chamber, the axial position of the transfer mechanism is deviated due to the strain or deformation of the preparatory vacuum chamber which has been thermally affected; and thus, there is the fear that the matching accuracy may become deteriorated. Further, in order to assure the matching accuracy of the transfer mechanism, it is necessary to machine the preparatory vacuum chamber with a high accuracy, which results in increasing the manufacturing costs, this being a problematic matter, too.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Thus, it is an object of the present invention to provide a heat treatment apparatus constructed such that the above-mentioned problems are overcome; even if the preparatory vacuum chamber is strained or deformed, there is no fear that the matching accuracy of the transfer mechanism may become deteriorated, and there is no need of machining the preparatory vacuum chamber with a high accuracy.
According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a heat treatment apparatus for applying a heat treatment to a target substrate, comprising: substrate; 400.degree. C. or higher; treating chamber and the preparatory vacuum chamber; preparatory vacuum chamber and, further, setting the treating chamber and the preparatory vacuum chamber to vacuum independently of each other; preparatory vacuum chamber; substantially independent of thermal deformation of the preparatory vacuum chamber; and chamber and the support member.
According to a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided a vertical heat treatment apparatus for applying a heat treatment, in a batch, to a plurality of target substrates which belong to a group of substrates having substantially the same contour size, comprising: therein; chamber, in a stacked state with interv
REFERENCES:
patent: 5162047 (1992-11-01), Wada et al.
patent: 5378283 (1995-01-01), Ushikawa
patent: 5697749 (1997-12-01), Iwabuchi et al.
patent: 5899653 (1999-05-01), Brodine
Sakata Kazunari
Tanifuji Tamotsu
Tsukada Akihiko
Ferensic Denise L.
Tokyo Electron Limited
Wilson Gregory A.
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