CN216288341U

CN216288341U - Separator for semiconductor manufacturing apparatus

Info

Publication number: CN216288341U
Application number: CN202122293520.4U
Authority: CN
Inventors: 冈嶋优作
Original assignee: Kokusai Electric Corp
Current assignee: Kokusai Electric Corp
Priority date: 2021-09-22
Filing date: 2021-09-22
Publication date: 2022-04-12
Anticipated expiration: 2031-09-22

Abstract

The present invention provides a spacer for a semiconductor manufacturing apparatus, comprising: a plurality of disc-shaped spacers respectively arranged between a plurality of substrates supported in multiple stages in a vertical direction by a plurality of support rods of the substrate support; and a support column for connecting the plurality of partition plates to each other near the outer edge of each partition plate, wherein the plurality of partition plates are provided with a plurality of notches at the outer edge thereof for avoiding the plurality of support rods. Thus, when used in cooperation with the substrate support, the flow of gas can be separated between the plurality of substrates placed on the support rods of the substrate support, and the uniformity of the thickness of the thin film formed on each substrate can be improved.

Description

Separator for semiconductor manufacturing apparatus

Technical Field

The present invention relates to a spacer used in a semiconductor manufacturing apparatus.

Background

In a process of processing a substrate (e.g., a wafer) in a semiconductor manufacturing apparatus, a plurality of substrates are aligned and held in a vertical direction by a substrate support (e.g., a boat), and after the substrate support is carried into a processing chamber, a processing gas is introduced into the processing chamber to perform a thin film forming process on the substrate.

However, when a plurality of substrates are simultaneously processed, there is a problem that the thickness of the thin film formed on each substrate varies.

SUMMERY OF THE UTILITY MODEL

The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and an object of the present invention is to provide a spacer used in a semiconductor manufacturing apparatus, which can improve uniformity of thickness of a thin film formed on each substrate by separating flows of gas between a plurality of substrates.

In order to achieve the above object, a spacer for a semiconductor manufacturing apparatus according to the present invention includes: a plurality of disc-shaped spacers respectively arranged between a plurality of substrates supported in multiple stages in a vertical direction by a plurality of support rods of the substrate support; and a support column that connects the plurality of partition plates near outer edges of the respective partition plates, wherein the plurality of partition plates are each provided with a plurality of notches at the outer edge for avoiding the plurality of support rods.

Effect of the utility model

According to the spacer for a semiconductor manufacturing apparatus of the present invention, the flow of gas can be separated between the plurality of substrates placed on the substrate support, and the uniformity of the thickness of the thin film formed on each substrate can be improved.

Drawings

Fig. 1 is a schematic sectional view schematically showing a semiconductor manufacturing apparatus incorporating the spacer for a semiconductor manufacturing apparatus and the substrate holder according to the present embodiment.

Fig. 2 is a perspective view showing a spacer for a semiconductor manufacturing apparatus according to the present embodiment.

Fig. 3 is a front view showing a spacer for a semiconductor manufacturing apparatus according to the present embodiment.

Fig. 4 is a side view showing a spacer for a semiconductor manufacturing apparatus according to the present embodiment.

Fig. 5 is a sectional view a-a of fig. 3.

Fig. 6 is a sectional view B-B of fig. 3.

Fig. 7 is a bottom view showing the spacer for a semiconductor manufacturing apparatus according to the present embodiment.

Fig. 8 is a partial perspective view showing a state in which the spacer for a semiconductor manufacturing apparatus is combined with the substrate support.

Description of the reference numerals

100: semiconductor manufacturing apparatus, 110: outer reaction tube, 120: inner reaction tube, 101: heater, 121: nozzle, 130: exhaust pipe, 500: storage chamber, 10: substrate, 180: chamber, 200: spacer for semiconductor manufacturing apparatus, 300: substrate support, 301: base, 302: support rod, 303: substrate holder, 201: a bottom plate, 204: top plate, 202: strut, 203: separator, 2033: notch, 205: auxiliary strut, 206: protrusion, 2013: gap

Detailed Description

Hereinafter, specific embodiments for carrying out the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. For the sake of easy understanding, there are cases where the components in the drawings are not in the same proportion or schematically shown as compared with the actual state, and there are cases where the proportions of the same components in the drawings are not the same.

First, before explaining the spacer for a semiconductor manufacturing apparatus of the present embodiment, a description will be given of a structure related to the semiconductor manufacturing apparatus.

As shown in fig. 1, a semiconductor manufacturing apparatus 100 includes: a cylindrical outer reaction tube 110 and an inner reaction tube 120 extending in the vertical direction; a heater 101 as a heating part (furnace body) provided on the outer periphery of the outer reaction tube 110; and a gas supply nozzle 121 constituting a gas supply unit. Here, the outer reaction tube 110 and the inner reaction tube 120 are coaxially disposed, and the gas supply nozzle 121 is disposed therebetween, and the process gas is supplied to the surfaces of the plurality of substrates 10 in the inner reaction tube 120 to form a desired thin film.

The outer reaction tube 110 and the inner reaction tube 120 are made of a material such as quartz or SiC. The outer reaction tube 110 is connected to an unillustrated exhaust mechanism via an exhaust pipe 130, and the insides of the outer reaction tube 110 and the inner reaction tube 120 are exhausted by the unillustrated exhaust mechanism.

The chamber 180 is provided below the outer reaction tube 110 and the inner reaction tube 120 via the manifold 111, and includes a housing chamber 500. In the storage chamber 500, the substrate 10 is loaded on the substrate support (for example, a boat) 300 or unloaded from the substrate support 300 by a transfer machine (not shown) through the substrate loading port 310.

Here, the chamber 180 is made of a metal material such as SUS (stainless steel) or aluminum. Inside the chamber 180, a driving mechanism portion for driving the substrate support 300 and the semiconductor manufacturing apparatus spacer (hereinafter, simply referred to as spacer) 200 in the vertical direction and the rotational direction is provided.

As shown in fig. 1, the substrate support 300 is configured to support a plurality of support rods 302 on a base 301, and to support a plurality of substrates 10 at a predetermined interval by attaching substrate holders 303 (see fig. 8) as support portions to the plurality of support rods 302 at equal intervals.

In the semiconductor manufacturing apparatus, the spacers 200 are preferably entirely made of quartz for the purpose of separating the processing spaces of the substrates 10 from each other in the processing chamber formed by the inner reaction tube 120 and separating the flows of gas between the substrates 10, and are configured such that a plurality of disc-shaped spacers 203 are fixed to the support columns 202 at predetermined intervals between the bottom plate 201 and the top plate 204. When the spacer 200 is used in cooperation with the substrate support 300, the plurality of substrates 10 supported by the substrate holders 303 attached to the support rods 302 are separated from each other by the disk-shaped spacer plates 203 supported by the support columns 202 at predetermined intervals. Here, the spacer 203 may be disposed on one or both of the upper and lower sides of the substrate 10.

The predetermined interval between the plurality of substrates 10 mounted on the substrate holder 303 is the same as the vertical interval between the spacers 203 in the spacer 200, and the diameter of the spacers 203 is larger than the diameter of the substrates 10.

The substrate support 300 and the spacers 200 are driven by the driving mechanism in the vertical direction between the inner reaction tube 120 and the receiving chamber 500 and in the rotational direction around the center of the substrate 10 supported by the substrate support 300.

In order to adjust the film thickness distribution of the thin film formed on the surface of the substrate 10 more favorably, it is preferable that the distance between the corresponding substrate 10 and the spacer 203 is variable, that is, one or both of the substrate support 300 and the spacer 200 are configured to be driven vertically, and a detailed description of the driving mechanism thereof will be omitted here.

Hereinafter, a specific structure of the spacer 200 according to the present embodiment will be described in further detail with reference to fig. 2 to 8.

As shown in fig. 2 to 4, the spacer 200 has a plurality of circular plate-shaped spacer plates 203 and a plurality of (three shown in fig. 3) support columns 202 that connect the plurality of spacer plates 203 to each other near the outer edges thereof, and the plurality of spacer plates 203 are arranged between a plurality of substrates 10 supported in multiple stages in the vertical direction by a plurality of support rods 302 in a state of being fitted to the substrate support 300. In the present embodiment, fitting openings are provided in the outer edges of the plurality of partition plates 203, and the support columns 202 are fitted into the corresponding fitting openings of the respective partition plates 203, whereby the plurality of partition plates 203 are connected to each other in a vertically aligned manner, and the top plate 204 is fixed to the distal ends of the support columns 202. In addition, the plurality of spacers 203 are provided at outer edges thereof with a plurality of notches 2033 for avoiding the plurality of support bars 302 of the substrate support 300, corresponding to the plurality of support bars 302 of the substrate support 300. In fig. 5 to 6, the case where three notches 2033 are provided for one partition plate 203 is shown, but the present invention is not limited thereto, and three or more or less notches may be provided.

In fig. 1, only five isolation plates 203 are shown, which is different from the number of isolation plates 203 in fig. 2, but this is merely illustrative, and the number of isolation plates 203 can be set as appropriate depending on the number of substrates to be processed, the size of the processing chamber, and the like.

Further, the outer edge of the top plate 204 is also provided with a plurality of (three in fig. 2) notches 2033 avoiding the plurality of support rods 302, and corresponds to the notches 2033 provided in the partition plate 203, and the top plate 204 also functions as a partition plate for dividing the processing space of the substrate, and therefore can be regarded as one of the partition plates.

As shown in fig. 2 and 3, the plurality of support columns 202 extend in the vertical direction at least between the top plate 204, which is the uppermost partition plate, and the lowermost partition plate 203, and at least one of the plurality of support columns 202 is spaced apart from each other by a distance larger than the diameter of the substrate 10, that is, a straight-line distance between two predetermined support columns 202 (the leftmost support column and the rightmost support column in fig. 3) adjacent to each other along the outer edge of the partition plate 203 is larger than the diameter of the substrate 10, whereby the substrate 10 can be loaded between the two support columns 202. Also, with respect to the substrate support 300, at least one space between the plurality of support rods 302 is larger than the diameter of the substrate 10.

In fig. 5, the plurality of notches 2033 are provided adjacent to the corresponding support columns 202, respectively, but the present invention is not limited thereto, and a predetermined two notches 2033 of the plurality of notches 2033 may be provided adjacent to the predetermined two support columns 202, respectively, in each partition plate 203. This makes the distance between the spacers 200 and the substrate support 300 at the position where the substrate 10 is loaded to be substantially the same, and facilitates loading of the substrate.

Here, it is preferable that the plurality of partition plates 203 have the same shape and the plurality of notches 2033 have the same shape. Here, the shape of the plurality of notches 2033 may be any shape as long as it can avoid (accommodate) the support rod 302 of the substrate support 300, but considering the shapes of the support rod 302 and the substrate holder 303, the shape of the plurality of notches 2033 is preferably a convex shape as shown in fig. 2 and 5. The top plate 204, which is one of the partition plates, has the same shape as the plurality of partition plates 203, and the notches have the same convex shape. Further, each of the partition plates 203 may be provided with spot facing (see fig. 5) at a position spaced apart from the plurality of notches 2033 (a position distant from each notch). A spot facing may be provided at a corresponding position of the top plate 204.

The plurality of spacers 203 may include a spacer disposed directly above the uppermost substrate 10 among the plurality of substrates 10 or a spacer 203 disposed directly below the lowermost substrate among the plurality of substrates 10.

As shown in fig. 2 to 4, the spacer 200 of the present embodiment further includes a bottom plate 201 connected to the lower end of the support column 202 and disposed concentrically with the plurality of spacer plates 203. As shown in fig. 6 and 7, a plurality of (the same number as the notches 2033 for one spacer 203, and three notches in the drawing) U-shaped notches 2013 for avoiding the plurality of support rods 302 of the substrate support 300 are also provided on the outer edge of the base plate 201. As shown in fig. 2 and 4, the present invention further includes an auxiliary column 205 connecting the bottom plate 201 and the lowermost partition plate 203 of the plurality of partition plates 203. As shown in fig. 6, the auxiliary stay 205 is provided at a position away from the plurality of notches 2013 (a position distant from each notch 2013).

In the example shown in fig. 3 and 6, a total of four support columns, that is, three support columns 202 extending to the uppermost top plate 204 and one auxiliary support column 205 extending to the lowermost partition plate 203 are arranged upward from the bottom plate 201. Here, a plurality of auxiliary pillars 205 may be provided as appropriate.

Further, a plurality of projections 206 are provided at the same pitch on the lower surface of the base plate 201 to reduce the contact surface with the support member (quartz cover) of the semiconductor manufacturing apparatus 100.

As shown in fig. 6 and 7, the bottom plate 201 is annular and has an inner diameter portion for positioning with the support member. A plurality of (e.g., three) holes 207 are provided in the annular portion for angular positioning with respect to the support member. Notches 2013 for preventing interference with the support rods 302 of the substrate support 300 are formed at positions offset from the holes 207 and corresponding to the notches 2033 of the spacer 203. The protrusion 206 is formed at a position angularly offset from the hole 207 and the notch 2013.

Here, although the case where the base plate 201 is provided is described, the base plate may be omitted and the spacer 200 may be attached to the support member of the semiconductor manufacturing apparatus 100 in another manner.

As shown in fig. 5, in the plurality of partition plates 203, the plurality of notches 2033 are arranged in plane symmetry with respect to a predetermined vertical plane S (shown by a dashed-dotted line) passing through the center of the partition plate 203. When the bottom plate 201 is omitted, if the number of the notches 2033 and the number of the pillars 202 are the same odd number for one spacer 203, the entire spacer 200 is configured to be plane-symmetrical except for one pillar (in fig. 4, the pillar 202 provided beside the notch 2033 through which the dot-and-dash line passes).

According to the above configuration, as shown in fig. 8, when the spacer 200 is combined with the substrate support 300, or when one or both of the substrate support 300 and the spacer 200 are configured to be driven up and down, the support bar 302 of the substrate support 300 can be accommodated and interference with the support bar 302 of the substrate support 300 can be prevented due to the existence of the notch 2033 of the spacer 203 and the notch 2013 of the base plate 201.

According to the spacer 200 for a semiconductor manufacturing apparatus of the present invention, when used in cooperation with the substrate support 300, the flow of gas can be separated between the plurality of substrates 10 placed on the substrate support 300, and the uniformity of the thickness of the thin film formed on each substrate 10 can be improved.

The above description has been given in detail only for the preferred embodiments of the present invention. Various modifications and additions may be made to the described embodiments or may be substituted in a similar manner by those skilled in the art to which the present invention pertains, and the technical scope of the present invention should be determined by the claims, and the meaning equivalent to the contents of the claims and all modifications within the scope thereof should be included.

Claims

1. A separator for a semiconductor manufacturing apparatus, comprising:

a plurality of disc-shaped spacers respectively arranged between a plurality of substrates supported in multiple stages in a vertical direction by a plurality of support rods of the substrate support; and

a strut connecting the plurality of separator plates to each other near an outer edge of each separator plate,

the plurality of partition plates are each provided at an outer edge with a plurality of notches for avoiding the plurality of support bars.

2. The spacer for semiconductor manufacturing apparatus according to claim 1,

the notches are provided with more than three for one of the partition plates.

3. The spacer for semiconductor manufacturing apparatus according to claim 1,

the plurality of support columns extend in the vertical direction at least between the uppermost partition plate and the lowermost partition plate, and a linear distance between two predetermined support columns adjacent to each other along the outer edge of the partition plate is larger than the diameter of the substrate.

4. The spacer for semiconductor manufacturing apparatus according to claim 3,

predetermined two notches of the plurality of notches are provided adjacent to the predetermined two pillars, respectively.

5. The spacer for semiconductor manufacturing apparatus according to claim 1,

the plurality of isolation plates are in the same shape, and the plurality of gaps are in a convex shape.

6. The spacer for semiconductor manufacturing apparatus according to claim 1,

the spacer includes a spacer disposed directly above an uppermost substrate among the plurality of substrates or a spacer disposed directly below a lowermost substrate among the plurality of substrates.

7. The spacer for semiconductor manufacturing apparatus according to claim 1,

the plurality of notches are arranged in plane symmetry with respect to a predetermined vertical plane passing through the center of the partition plate.

8. The spacer for semiconductor manufacturing apparatus according to claim 7,

the number of the notches and the number of the pillars are the same and odd for one of the spacers, and the entire semiconductor manufacturing apparatus spacer is configured to be plane-symmetrical except for one of the pillars.

9. The spacer for semiconductor manufacturing apparatus according to claim 1,

further comprising a bottom plate connected to the lower ends of the plurality of pillars and concentrically arranged with the plurality of partition plates,

and notches which avoid the plurality of supporting rods are arranged on the outer edge of the bottom plate.

10. The spacer for semiconductor manufacturing apparatus according to claim 9,

the base plate is provided with a plurality of partition plates, and the plurality of partition plates are provided with a plurality of partition plates.

11. The spacer for semiconductor manufacturing apparatus according to claim 1,

the insulator for a semiconductor manufacturing apparatus is entirely made of quartz.