Sumitomo Electric Industries, Limited

Japan Fine Ceramics Center

Tokyo Electron Limited

Osaka University

Hirohiko Nakata

Masuhiro Natsuhara

Akira Kuibira

Kazutaka Sasaki

Yasuhisa Yushio

Motoyuki Tanaka

Kenji Shinma

Manabu Hashikura

Katsuhiro Itakura

Kouhei Shimoda

Kenjiro Higaki

Takashi Ishii

Harutoshi Ukegawa

Kazuya Kamitake

Masaya Miyake

Tomoyuki Awazu

Mitsunori Kobayashi

Akira Sasame

Hiroshi Nomura

Kiyoshi Uchida

Yasuyuki Matsui

Yukio Shimokawa

Yasuhiro Murase

Takao Nishioka

Sumi Tanaka

Chihiro Kawai

Yoshiyuki Hirose

Akira Mikumo

Mitsuru Shimazu

Yoshinari Miyamoto

Kenya Motoyoshi

Masashi Narita

Tetsuya Saito

Nobuya Oooka

Yoshifumi Kachi

Syunji Nagao

Shunji Nagao

Akira Shinkoda

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

The invention provides a wafer-prober wafer holder that allows positional precision and temperature uniformity to be increased, and also allows the chip to be heated and cooled rapidly, and a wafer prober device provided with the same. The wafer-prober wafer holder of the invention is constituted by a chuck top having a chuck top conducting layer on its surface, and a support member for supporting the chuck top, and has a cavity in a portion between the chuck top and the support member. The chuck top preferably is provided with a heating member.

Wafer holder for wafer prober and wafer prober equipped with the same

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

The object of the present invention is to prevent damage due to thermal stress induced into a substrate holding table in a substrate holding structure for holding a substrate to be processed. In the substrate holding structure having the substrate holding table arranged at the top of a support column, a flanged part is defined by an inner circumferential surface and an outer circumferential surface at a joint between the support column and the substrate holding table. The inner circumferential surface is formed of an inclined surface, which is inclined such that the inner diameter of the flanged part successively increases as approaching the lower surface of the substrate holding table. On the lower surface of the substrate holding table to which the flanged part is joined, a U-shaped groove is formed so as to correspond to the outer circumferential surface of the flanged part.

Substrate holding structure and substrate processing device

A wafer holder is provided having high rigidity and an enhanced heat-insulating effect that allow positional accuracy and heating uniformity to be improved, a chip to be rapidly heated and cooled, and the manufacturing cost to be reduced, and a wafer prober apparatus on which the wafer holder is mounted. The wafer holder of the present invention includes a chuck top for mounting a wafer, a support member for supporting the chuck top, and a stand for supporting the support member. The chuck top has a thermal conductivity Kand a Young's modulus Y; the support member has a thermal conductivity Kand a Young's modulus Y; and the stand has a thermal conductivity Kand a Young's modulus Y. K&#x3e;Kand K&#x3e;K; and Y&#x3e;Yand Y&#x3e;Y

Wafer holder, and wafer prober provided therewith

A ceramic heater attaining more uniform temperature distribution from the start to the end of cooling is provided. Further, in a cooling module used for cooling the heater, liquid leakage during use is prevented, degradation in cooling capability is prevented and the performance is maintained for a long period of use, and the manufacturing cost of the module is decreased. The ceramic heater includes a ceramic heater body and a cooling module cooling the heater body, and the cooling module has a structure formed by arranging a pipe in a trench formed in a plate-shaped structure.

Heater unit and semiconductor manufacturing apparatus including the same

A wafer holding body used for a wafer prober for testing a semiconductor wafer includes a chuck top having a conductive layer on a surface thereof and a support body supporting the chuck top. The support body has a base portion opposing the chuck top and a side portion extending from the perimeter of the base portion to the chuck top to support the chuck top. A cavity portion is formed between the chuck top and the base portion of the support body. A reflection plate is provided in the cavity portion. A heater unit and a wafer prober includes the wafer holding body.

Body for keeping a wafer, heater unit and wafer prober

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

According to the invention, there is provided a wafer holding member for use in a wafer prober for inspecting a semiconductor wafer, including a chuck top and a supporting member for supporting the chuck top, wherein the supporting member has a bottom portion facing to the chuck top, a cavity portion is formed between the chuck top and the bottom portion of the supporting member, and there is provided, in the cavity portion, at least a portion of a cooling mechanism for cooling at least one of the chuck top and the supporting member. Further, there is provided a wafer prober using the wafer holding member.

Body for keeping a wafer and wafer prober using the same

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

The object of the present invention is to provide a susceptor with superior thermal uniformity by minimizing pores in an aluminum nitride sintered body. In an aluminum nitride sintered body according to the present invention, the tin content and sulfur content are controlled so that they are no more than a fixed amount. More specifically, in an aluminum nitride sintered body having as its main component aluminum nitride, the tin content in the aluminum nitride sintered body is no more than 50 ppm and the sulfur content is no more than 100 ppm. It would be preferable for a resistance heating body to be formed in the aluminum nitride sintered body and it would be preferable for the aluminum nitride sintered body to be used as a semiconductor heating unit.

Growing community of inventors

Itami, Japan

Hirohiko Nakata