Sumitomo Electric Industries, Limited

Akira Kuibira

Hirohiko Nakata

Masuhiro Natsuhara

Manabu Hashikura

Kenjiro Higaki

Takashi Ishii

Kenji Shinma

Takao Nishioka

Masaya Miyake

Yoshishige Takano

Kenji Matsunuma

Matsuo Higuchi

Masaaki Honda

Yasuyuki Matsui

Osamu Komura

Akira Yamaguchi

Yasushi Mochida

Kazutaka Sasaki

Jin-Joo Park

Masashi Narita

Yoshifumi Kachi

A heating device for manufacturing semiconductor capable of uniformly heating a wafer or other materials to be treated, and in particular a heating device in a coater-developer used for heat-hardening of resin film for photolithography and for heat-calcining of low-dielectric constant insulating film, is provided. A device of this invention comprises a ceramic holderhaving a resistive heating elementembedded therein, which holds and heats a waferor another material to be treated; a cylindrical support memberwhich supports the ceramic holder; and a chamberwhich houses these. The support memberand ceramic holderare not hermetically sealed, or alternatively the atmospheres within the cylindrical support memberand within the chamberare maintained to be substantially the same by adjusting the introduction and evacuation of gas.

Heating device for manufacturing semiconductor

An apparatus for manufacturing a semiconductor or liquid crystal is provided with a reaction chamber housing a ceramic holder with an embedded resistive heating element, and a cylindrical support member one end of which supports the ceramic holder and the other end of which side is fixed to the reaction chamber. One end of the cylindrical support member is hermetically bonded to the ceramic holder; and a partition plate and sealing material hermetically seal the other end of which side. Embodiments include partitioning the space within the cylindrical support member with the ceramic holder, and the partition plate and depressurizing to vacuum or to a reduced pressure atmosphere of an inert gas. Advantageously the cylindrical support member can easily be hermetically sealed, corrosion and oxidation of electrode terminals exposed on the rear surface of the ceramic holder prevented, the thermal uniformity and thermal efficiency of the holder improved, and the length of the cylindrical support member reduced, thereby reducing the size of the reaction chamber.

Semiconductor processing apparatus with a heat resistant hermetically sealed substrate support

An apparatus for manufacturing a semiconductor or liquid crystal has, within a reaction chamberto which a reactive gas is supplied, a ceramic holderhaving a resistive heating elementembedded therein; and further comprises a ceramic cylindrical support memberone end of which supports the ceramic holderand the other end of which is fixed to a portion of the reaction chamber, and an inert gas supply tubeand inert gas evacuation tubeeach having an opening inside the cylindrical support member. It is preferable that the inert gas within the cylindrical support memberbe maintained at less than 0.1 MPa (one atmosphere). By means of such an arrangement, oxidation and corrosion of electrodes provided on the rear surface of the ceramic holder can be prevented, without an oxidation-resistant seal or corrosion-resistant seal being applied. The semiconductor or liquid crystal manufacturing apparatus also ensures the thermal uniformity in the ceramic holder and eliminates useless power consumption. Moreover, the apparatus size can be reduced, and manufacturing costs can be decreased.

Semiconductor or liquid crystal producing device

For semiconductor manufacturing equipment, a ceramic susceptor that without occurrence of cracking in the course of heating wafers suppresses thermal radiation from the circumferential surface of a wafer placed on the ceramic susceptor, to heighten isothermal quality in the wafer face. A semiconductor-manufacturing-equipment ceramic susceptor () including a resistive heating element () in the face or interior of ceramic substrates () has a wafer pocket () consisting of a recess that can accommodatingly carry a wafer. The angle that the perimetric inside surface and the bottom face of the wafer pocket () form is over 90&#xb0; and 170&#xb0; or less, and/or the curvature of the bottom-portion circumferential rim where the perimetric inside surface and the bottom face of the pocket join is 0.1 mm or more. A plasma electrode furthermore may be disposed in the face or interior of the ceramic substrates () of the ceramic susceptor ().

Ceramic susceptor for semiconductor manufacturing equipment

Affords a holder for use in semiconductor or liquid-crystal manufacturing devices&#x2014;as well as semiconductor or liquid-crystal manufacturing devices in which the holder is installed&#x2014;in which temperature uniformity in the processed-object retaining face is heightened. Configuring the holder with, furnished atop a ceramic susceptor, a composite of a ceramic and a metal improves the temperature uniformity in the holder's processed-object retaining face and makes for curtailing the generation of particulates and other contaminants. In addition, putting a coating on at least the retaining face improves the durability of the holder. Installing a holder of this sort in a semiconductor manufacturing device or a liquid-crystal manufacturing device contributes to making available semiconductor or liquid-crystal manufacturing devices whose productivity and throughput are excellent.

Holder for use in semiconductor or liquid-crystal manufacturing device and semiconductor or liquid-crystal manufacturing device in which the holder is installed

A wafer holder is provided in which local heat radiation in supporting and heating wafers is kept under control and temperature uniformity of the wafer retaining surface is enhanced, and by making use of the wafer holder a semiconductor manufacturing apparatus suitable for processing larger-diameter wafers is made available. In a wafer holder () including within a ceramic substrate () a resistive heating element () or the like and being furnished with a lead () penetrating a reaction chamber (), the lead () is housed in a tubular guide member (), and an interval between the guide member () and the reaction chamber () as well as the interior of the guide member () are hermetically sealed. The guide member () and the ceramic substrate () are not joined together, and in the interior of the guide member () in which the inside is hermetically sealed, the atmosphere toward the ceramic substrate () is preferably substantially the same as the atmosphere in the reaction chamber ().

Wafer holder and semiconductor manufacturing apparatus

Ceramic susceptor whose wafer-retaining face has superior isothermal properties, and that is suited to utilization in apparatuses for manufacturing semiconductors and in liquid-crystal manufacturing apparatuses. In plate-shaped sintered ceramic body, resistive heating elementis formed. Fluctuation in pullback length L between sintered ceramic body outer-peripheral edgeand resistive heating element substantive-domain outer-peripheral edgeis within &#xb1;0.8%, while isothermal rating of the entire surface of the wafer-retaining face is &#xb1;1.0% or less. Preferable is a superior isothermal rating of &#xb1;0.5% or less that can be achieved by bringing the fluctuation in pullback length L to within &#xb1;0.5%.

Ceramic susceptor

In the substrate processing apparatus, a ceramic module for mounting a substrate has a flat plate portion having an electric circuitry and a ceramic base body, and as at least a part of a surface of the flat plate portion other than the surface mounting the substrate is in contact with a chamber, it is supported by the chamber. Thus, a substrate processing apparatus can be provided which improves thermal uniformity, reduces cost, is suitable for size reduction of the apparatus and which can ease restrictions in mounting a power supply conductive member or the like.

Substrate processing apparatus

A semiconductor heating apparatus, in which, when measuring the electrical properties of multiple chips formed on a large size wafer, only one or a several chips are heated uniformly, and the other chips are on standby at a low temperature. The semiconductor heating apparatus includes a heating part for mounting and heating the workpiece, a support part which supports the heating part, and a cooling module which contacts the support part. A plurality of heating parts and supporting parts are joined together. The workpiece mounting surfaces of the plurality of heating parts are preferably constructed in the same plane. In addition, there is preferably a thermal insulating material distributed underneath the support part. The heating part is preferably a ceramic heater.

Semiconductor heating apparatus

An inexpensive workpiece holder having high reliability and a processing apparatus equipped with the workpiece holder are provided, in which damage caused by oxygen in the air is prevented. The holder comprises: a ceramic body which has an electrode and a heater circuit and which can holds a workpiece; a tubular member having an end portion connected to the ceramic body; a sealing member which is disposed inside the tubular member and which isolates a space inside the tubular member into two regions: a region on the first end portion ('sealed portion') and a region on the opposite side ('opposite region'); and power supply conductive members which extend from the opposite region side, penetrating the sealing member to the sealed region side, and which are electrically connected to the electrode and the heater circuit.

Workpiece holder for processing apparatus, and processing apparatus using the same

A substrate holding structure having excellent corrosion resistance and airtightness, excellent dimensional accuracy and sufficient durability when mechanical or thermal stress is applied thereto is obtained. A holder () serving as the substrate holding structure includes a ceramic base () for holding a substrate, a protective cylinder () joined to the ceramic base () and a joining layer () positioned therebetween for joining the ceramic base () and the protective cylinder () to each other. The joining layer () contains at least 2 mass % and not more than 70 mass % of a rare earth oxide, at least 10 mass % and not more than 78 mass % of aluminum oxide, and at least 2 mass % and not more than 50 mass % of aluminum nitride. The rare earth oxide or the aluminum oxide has the largest proportional content among the aforementioned three types of components in the joining layer ().

Ceramic joined body, substrate holding structure and substrate processing apparatus

Heater module, and semiconductor manufacturing equipment in which the heater module is utilized, for raising the cooling speed of a post-heating heater markedly more than conventional, and that can contribute toward bettering and improving productivity, without accompanying scaling-up of and cost increases in the semiconductor manufacturing equipment. The heater module is furnished with heater partfor controlled heating of a wafer placed on its top face, and block partprovided to be shiftable relative to said heater part, for varying heat capacity in total with heater partby abutting on or separating from the reverse surface of heater part. By having the heat capacity of block partbe 20% or more of the total heat capacity of heater partand block part, the heater cooling speed can be made 10&#xb0; C./min or more.

Heater module for semiconductor manufacturing equipment

Joint formations that, in joining together joining members employed in a variety of electrical and electronic components, yield sufficiently high joint strength in the direction perpendicular to the plane in which two joining members join, and meanwhile in the direction parallel to the joint plane. First and second joining members have respective joint phases each formed with a different number of distinct yet continuous conformational faces, defining the joint phases so that neither is the matching complement of the other. A bonding agent interposed between the joint phases joins the joining members together. The difference in thermal expansion coefficient between the two joining members, and between them and the bonding agent, is 5.0&#xd7;10/&#xb0; C. or less. The joining members are a metal such as tungsten or Cu&#x2014;W, or a ceramic such as AlN or SiN; and glass or a solder material is utilized for the bonding agent.

Connecting structures

Temperature gauge, and ceramic susceptors and semiconductor manufacturing equipment utilizing the temperature gauge, in which the thermocouple may be easily replaced even if damaged, and in which heat from the temperature-gauging site is readily transmitted to the temperature-gauging contact, shortening time until the measurement temperature stabilizes. A temperature-gauging contact () in the tip of the thermocouple contacts, in an exposed-as-it-is state, a temperature-gauging site on a ceramic susceptor (), and by means of a circular cylindrical-shaped retaining member () screwed into female threads in the ceramic susceptor () is detachably pressed upon and retained against the ceramic susceptor. Thermocouple lead lines (), passing through a through-hole () in the retaining member (), stretch from one end face to the other end face thereof. The retaining member may be provided with a flange having threaded holes and screwlocked into female screws in the ceramic susceptor.

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Itami, Japan

Akira Kuibira