Adhesive bonding and miscellaneous chemical manufacture – Differential fluid etching apparatus – With workpiece support
Reexamination Certificate
2000-06-15
2002-10-15
Knode, Marian C. (Department: 1763)
Adhesive bonding and miscellaneous chemical manufacture
Differential fluid etching apparatus
With workpiece support
C118S724000, C118S729000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06464825
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a substrate processing apparatus of a single-substrate processing type used in a semiconductor manufacturing process, such as a single-substrate processing type CVD system for forming a thin film on a substrate, or a single-substrate processing type etcher system for thinly removing the surface of a substrate.
A conventional substrate processing apparatus of the type described above is required to carry out processing in a space containing a minimum amount of dust and a minimum number of Na ions, K ions, etc. liberated from the human body and the atmosphere because it is used to form fine electronic circuits on a substrate. To obtain a space containing a minimum number of Na ions, K ions, etc., a conventional substrate processing apparatus comprises a series of chambers as shown in
FIGS. 1
,
2
and
3
.
FIG. 1
is a diagram showing a typical structural example of a conventional substrate processing apparatus for single-substrate processing. In the substrate processing apparatus, first, a gate valve
101
is opened to load a substrate to be processed into a load-unload chamber
102
. Upon completion of the loading, the gate valve
101
is closed, and the load-unload chamber
102
is evacuated. A robot chamber
103
is held under a vacuum at all times. After a pressure in the load-unload chamber
102
has reached a predetermined level of vacuum, a gate valve
104
between the load-unload chamber
102
and the robot chamber
103
is opened, and the substrate is taken out of the load-unload chamber
102
and moved into the robot chamber
103
by means of a robot installed in the robot chamber
103
.
Thereafter, the gate valve
104
between the robot chamber
103
and the load-unload chamber
102
is closed. Next, a gate valve
106
provided between a processing chamber
105
and the robot chamber
103
is opened. Then, the arm of the robot is extended to load the substrate into the processing chamber
105
. A heater (e.g. a lamp heater
108
) as a reaction energy source is provided below the substrate
107
loaded into the processing chamber
105
. The lamp heater
108
is arranged to face the substrate
107
through a transparent quartz plate
109
. The substrate
107
may be placed directly on a resistance heater, as is very often the case. A processing gas supply unit
112
is provided above the substrate
107
to supply a raw material for processing and a carrier gas G toward the substrate
107
. The apparatus is further provided with exhaust systems
110
for controlling the pressure in the processing chamber
105
. It should be noted that reference numeral
111
denotes a power supply unit for supplying electric power to the lamp heater
108
.
FIG. 2
is a diagram showing a structural example of a further improved conventional substrate processing apparatus. In this example, a processing chamber
105
devised to smooth the flow of the raw material and carrier gas G supplied from the processing gas supply unit
112
is provided. When the substrate
107
reaches the processing position as shown, a processing space is formed in the center of the processing chamber
105
by the substrate
107
, a smoothly rounded chamber wall and the processing gas supply unit
112
. In
FIG. 2
, reference numeral
113
denotes a bellows, and reference numeral
114
denotes an elevating shaft. The elevating shaft
114
is raised and lowered by an elevating mechanism (not shown) to move the lamp heater
108
and the transparent quartz plate
109
up and down, which are mounted on the upper end of the elevating shaft
114
. It should be noted that the gate valves and other members that would adversely affect gas flow and temperature control of the chamber wall are excluded from the processing chamber
105
.
FIG. 3
shows an example of further improved conventional substrate processing apparatus. In this apparatus, when the substrate
107
placed on a holder
115
reaches a processing position by means of a holder elevating mechanism
116
, the internal space of the processing chamber
105
is separated into two spaces, i.e., a processing space (space A) and a space containing a heat source, a transfer mechanism, etc. (space B). Accordingly, in the space A, a gas flow system can be readily designed primarily taking into consideration processing. Since the space B is isolated from the processing gas, the transparent quartz plate
109
is not subject to fogging and it is, therefore, possible to perform stable heating with the lamp heater
108
. Even if a complicated mechanism of the apparatus exists in the space B, since no surface of the mechanism comes into contact with the processing gas, any surface which may generate particles or ions is minimized.
In the above-described examples of a substrate processing apparatus shown in
FIGS. 1
to
3
, a processing gas supply source of the processing gas supply unit
112
is disposed on the upper side with respect to the substrate
107
, and the lamp heater
108
as a heat source is disposed on the lower side with respect to the substrate
107
. The advantages and disadvantages of this arrangement will be described below with reference to
FIGS. 4 and 5
.
FIG. 4
shows a structural example in which the processing gas supply source
112
is disposed on the upper side, and the heat source
117
is disposed on the lower side. The advantage of this substrate processing apparatus is that in a gravitational space it is only necessary to place the substrate
107
on a holder, and there is no need to provide a special jig for fixing the substrate
107
on the holder. The disadvantage of this apparatus is that heat convection
118
is generated from the heat source
117
toward the processing gas supply source
112
, and it is therefore difficult for the processing gas (reaction precursor)
119
emitted from the processing gas supply source
112
to reach the surface of the substrate
107
smoothly.
FIG. 5
shows a structural example in which the processing gas supply source
112
is disposed on the lower side and the heat source
117
is disposed on the upper side in reverse positional relation to the arrangement shown in FIG.
4
. The advantage of this substrate processing apparatus is that since the surface of the substrate
107
to be processed faces downward, there is no likelihood that the surface to be processed will be contaminated with falling particles. The disadvantage of the substrate processing apparatus is that a mechanism is required for turning the substrate
107
upside down and a jig
120
is required for retaining the substrate
107
on a holder. The provision of the substrate retaining jig
120
is particularly disadvantageous from the viewpoint of processing performance because it is located on the processing side.
To solve the above-described problems, there has been proposed a processing chamber structure arranged as shown in FIG.
6
. In the illustrated arrangement, the processing gas supply source
112
is disposed on the upper side with respect to the substrate
107
, and the heat source
117
is disposed on the lower side with respect to the substrate
107
. The substrate
107
is simply placed on the holder
115
. With this arrangement, heat convection problems can be solved by rotating the substrate
107
about the center axis thereof. That is, rotating the substrate
107
produces a flow of processing gas
125
flowing from the processing gas supply source
112
toward the substrate
107
and further to the periphery thereof. Thus, the processing gas flow
125
is unaffected by the heat convection and the processing gas is efficiently supplied to the surface of the substrate
107
, the processing gas is also thereby efficiently discharged in each sideward direction.
In
FIG. 6
, reference numeral
115
denotes a holder for holding the substrate
107
. The holder
115
is mounted on the top surface of a rotary table
121
. The rotary table
121
is rotatably supported on a stationary side
126
via bearings
122
. A rotational drive source
123
is provided on the stationa
Crowell Michelle
Ebara Corporation
Knode Marian C.
Wenderoth , Lind & Ponack, L.L.P.
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