Coating apparatus – Gas or vapor deposition – Multizone chamber
Reexamination Certificate
1998-11-13
2001-06-26
Kunemund, Robert (Department: 1765)
Coating apparatus
Gas or vapor deposition
Multizone chamber
C156S345420, C118S72300R, C118S728000, C204S298250, C204S298350, C438S685000, C438S689000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06251191
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a processing apparatus for applying a predetermined process to an object, and a processing system having the processing apparatus.
As the processing apparatus for applying a predetermined process (such as film formation, etching, oxidative diffusion) to a semiconductor wafer to form a semiconductor integrated circuit, a batch-type processing apparatus and a single-wafer processing apparatus are generally known. In the batch-type processing apparatus, a plurality of wafers stacked one upon the other with a predetermined pitch are processed at the same time. Whereas, in the single-wafer processing apparatus, wafers are processed one by one at high speed. As a size of the wafer increases from 6 to 8 inches or to 300 mm in diameter, the single-wafer processing apparatus tends to be used since the resultant film can be obtained uniformly.
The single-wafer processing apparatus such as a film formation apparatus has a cylindrical processing vessel capable of producing a vacuum therein, a table (susceptor) arranged horizontally within the processing vessel for mounting an object to be processed such as a semiconductor wafer thereon, a heater (or a heating lamp) arranged under the-table for heating the object mounted on the table, and a shower head arranged on a ceiling portion of the processing vessel so as to face the table. With this structure, a requisite gas is sprayed to the object from the shower head while heating the object (horizontally placed on the table) and maintaining it at a predetermined processing temperature by the heater. In this manner, a predetermined process including film formation can be applied to the object.
FIG. 14
shows a processing system having two single-wafer processing apparatuses
6
constructed as mentioned above. As shown in the figure, the processing system has a transfer chamber
4
having a foldable and rotatable transfer arm
2
, a load-lock chamber
8
connected to the transfer chamber
4
with an openable gate valve G
1
interposed between them, and a cassette chamber
10
connected to the load-lock chamber
8
with an openable gate valve G
2
interposed between them. The cassette chamber
10
is used for loading a cassette which stores unprocessed objects into the system or unloading a cassette which stores processed objects from the system. To increase a processing efficiency, two processing apparatuses
6
,
6
are connected to the transfer chamber
4
with openable gate valves G
3
, G
4
interposed between them.
To maintain the transfer chamber
4
always at a predetermined vacuum, the load-lock chamber
8
is interchangeably set between an atmospheric pressure and a vacuum, repeatedly. More specifically, when the load-lock chamber
8
is-communicated with the cassette chamber
10
under atmospheric pressure, the load-lock chamber
8
is set at the atmospheric pressure while leaving the gate valves G
1
, G
2
closed. Thereafter, the gate valve G
2
is opened. On the other hand, when the load-lock chamber
8
is communicated with the transfer chamber
4
under vacuum, the load-lock chamber
8
is set at the same vacuum pressure as in the transfer chamber
4
while leaving the gate valves G
1
, G
2
closed. Thereafter, the gate valve Gi is opened.
In the processing system constructed as mentioned above, a object such as a semiconductor wafer is taken out from a cassette within the cassette camber
10
in a horizontal posture, transported to the processing apparatus
6
within the system while maintaining the horizontal posture, and horizontally placed on the table within the processing apparatus
6
. Therefore, each of the processing apparatus
6
and individual chambers
4
,
8
,
10
is designed in such a way that its foot print (its image projected on the floor surface) is larger than that of the object, in term of area. Consequently, with the increasing tendency in size of the object in recent years (for example, the size of the object (such as a semiconductor wafer) increases to 8 inches or to 300 mm in diameter), the foot prints of the processing apparatus
6
and individual chambers
4
,
8
,
10
are inevitably increased. As a result, the area of the processing system occupied in the clean room becomes quite large.
Since the manufacturing cost per unit area of the clean room is quite high, it is desired that the clean room must be used efficiently in consideration of the foot print. To attain this, the foot prints of the processing apparatus and the entire processing system including the processing apparatus, must be reduced as much as possible. Furthermore, in the single-wafer processing apparatus, a throughput is inevitably limited by an inherent feature of one-by-one wafer processing system.
BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
An object of the present invention is to provide a processing apparatus having a small foot print and high processing efficiency, a processing system and a processing method.
The aforementioned object of the present invention can be attained by the processing apparatus and the processing system mentioned below. To be more specific, a processing apparatus according to the present invention comprises:
a processing vessel having an inner processing space defined by a ceiling portion, a bottom portion, and side walls and capable of being evacuated to a predetermined vacuum;
a mounting table which has a first mounting surface for mounting the object thereon and a second mounting surface facing an opposite side to which the first mounting surface faces for mounting the object thereon, and which is situated in the inner processing space in such a way that the first and second mounting surfaces face the side walls of the processing vessel;
a process gas supply means for supplying a process gas to the inner processing space; and
a loading/unloading portion having an opening formed in the bottom portion of the processing vessel and a gate means for opening/closing the opening, for loading/unloading the object into/from the processing vessel.
Furthermore, the processing system according to the present invention, comprises:
a transfer chamber having a ceiling portion and capable of being evacuated to a predetermined vacuum and the object is transferred therethrough;
at least one processing chamber stacked on the transfer chamber, for applying a predetermined process to the object;
a loader chamber communicably connected to the transfer chamber through a first openable door, for loading an object;
at least one setting room communicably connected to the loader chamber through a second openable door and storing a plurality of objects stacked one upon the other, in a horizontal posture;
a loader arm provided in the loader chamber and having a rotatable and foldable arm portion, and a holding mechanism rotatably attached to an end portion of the arm portion in order to orient the object held by the holding mechanism toward a horizontal direction and a vertical direction, for transporting the object between the loader chamber and the setting chamber;
a transfer arm provided within the transfer chamber and having a moving mechanism movable in the horizontal direction, an arm main body liftably attached to the moving mechanism, and two holding portions provided at an upper end of the arm main body and holding almost vertically, for transferring two objects between the loader chamber and the processing chamber while holding two objects simultaneously and substantially vertically by the holding portions, respectively,
in which
the processing chamber comprises
a processing vessel having an inner processing space defined by a ceiling portion, a bottom portion, and side walls and capable of being evacuated to a predetermined vacuum;
a mounting table which has a first mounting surface for mounting the object thereon and a second mounting surface facing an opposite side to which the first mounting surface faces for mounting the object thereon, which is supported by the ceiling portion of the processing vessel, and which extends substantially vertically toward the bottom portion
Kunemund Robert
Oblon & Spivak, McClelland, Maier & Neustadt P.C.
Perez-Ramos Vanessa
Tokyo Electron Limited
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