Heating – Work feeding – agitating – discharging or conveying... – Removable furnace bottom section or kiln cart
Reexamination Certificate
2004-02-02
2004-12-14
Wilson, Gregory (Department: 3749)
Heating
Work feeding, agitating, discharging or conveying...
Removable furnace bottom section or kiln cart
C432S200000, C118S729000, C414S937000, C414S940000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06830449
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a mechanistic apparatus used for replacing a tubular means, and more particularly relates to an injector robot used for replacing a gas injector in a furnace.
2. Description of the Prior Art
FIG. 1
illustrates a schematic structure of a vertical furnace
100
. The vertical furnace
100
is equipped with a thermal insulating cover
102
within. Within the internal area of the thermal insulating cover
102
, an outer quartz tube
104
, an inner quartz tube
106
and a plurality of heaters
108
are arranged to form a process tube
110
with a cylindrical space. Various reaction gases used in the process tube
110
are introduced by gas supply conduits
112
and gas injectors
116
and are finally discharged by gas exhaust conduits
114
. The gas injector
116
is used to conduct the reaction gas and release it at the designate position in the process tube
110
. Plurality of semiconductor substrates such as silicon wafer is housed in a quartz-made boat
120
, which is mounted on a platform
118
of a boat elevator
120
. Hence, during a thermal oxidation process, wafers carried by the boat
120
will be moved upward into the process tube
110
and finally moved downward from the process tube
110
by the supporting of the boat elevator
120
in the vertical furnace
100
.
After a certain amount of thermal chemical processing deposition, the gas injector
116
must be dropped from the vertical furnace
100
and replaced by a new one. In a conventional gas injector replacing process, the temperature within the process tube
110
must be cooled down to about 400-500° C., then an operator that wearing heat-insulating gloves can pull out the gas injector
116
from the gas supply conduit
114
. Afterward, to the contrary of the above-described operation, a new gas injector
116
with same or different specification is provided and inserted into the gas supply conduit
114
, then the process tube
110
will be heated up to the normal operating temperature (ex. usually about 600° C.). But during the replacing process, an unexpected-breaking gas injector
116
will probably scald the furnace operator standing below the process tube
110
. Alternatively, another method for replacing the gas injector is adopted to stop the operation of the vertical furnace
100
until the temperature, within the process tube
110
, is cooled to room temperature for lowering the danger to the furnace operator. But it will take about 4-5 hours for the cooling and reheating steps and delay the predetermined program of the vertical furnace
100
.
In the two above conventional gas injector replacing processes, frequently cooling and reheating processes executed in the vertical furnace
100
will chap the reactive film coated on the wall of the process tube
110
, thus particle pollution will occur in the vertical furnace
100
. Besides, the above manual operations for replacing the gas injectors
116
are difficult to control because the length of the gas injectors
116
always exceed over 1 meter, and the furnace operator can not guarantee that he/she could insert the gas injector
116
into the gas supply conduit
112
with a parallel and unsloping angle.
Therefore, a mechanistic assistant apparatus is proved necessary for the operator to replace the gas injector
116
in the vertical furnace
100
, which is still running and without any cooling and reheating action. Then the replacement of the gas injector
116
could be executed precisely and safely by the assistant means and will not affect the predetermined procedure of the vertical furnace
100
.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
As above descriptions, one object of the present invention is providing an injector robot for replacing a gas injector in a furnace precisely and safely and will not delay the predetermined procedure of the furnace.
Another object of the present invention is providing an injector robot and mounting it on a boat elevator in a furnace, without spending extra money to assemble other assistant elevator. Hence, the injector robot could be moved smoothly in the vertical direction by the supporting of the boat elevator in the furnace.
According to the above objects, the present invention is providing an injector robot for replacing a gas injector in a furnace. The injector robot is composed of a base placed on the boat elevator, a slide rail arranged on the base, and a support stand mounted to the slide rail. The top of the support stand is provided with a notch structure used to hold the gas injector, and then a chuck fixed to the support stand will help to stabilize the gas injector. In addition, the slide rail is used to provide a horizontal-moving track for the support stand. Hence, by the above designs and the utilization of the boat elevator, the injector robot could execute the gas injector replacement process in the furnace, and which is still running and without any cooling and reheating action as in the conventional replacement processes.
Additional objects and advantages of this invention will be apparent from the following detailed description of a preferred embodiment thereof that proceeds with reference to the accompanying drawings.
REFERENCES:
patent: 3836325 (1974-09-01), Nakamura et al.
patent: 5221201 (1993-06-01), Yamaga et al.
patent: 6390754 (2002-05-01), Yamaga et al.
patent: 6435865 (2002-08-01), Tseng et al.
SIS Microelectronics Corporation
Squire Sanders & Dempsey L.L.P.
Wilson Gregory
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