Tokyo Electron Limited

Tokyo Electron Sagami Limited

Tokyo Electron Tohoku Limited

Tokyo Electron Sagami Kabushiki Kaisha

Kazunari Sakata

Kenichi Yamaga

Katsumi Ishii

Shingo Watanabe

Takashi Tanahashi

Motoki Akimoto

Tamotsu Tanifuji

Akihiko Tsukada

Shinya Mochizuki

Hiroshi Motono

Syuji Moriya

Yasushi Takeuchi

Takanobu Asano

Hiroyuki Iwai

Masato Kadobe

Kenji Tago

Koyu Hasegawa

Masaharu Abe

Mitsuo Mizukami

Hiroki Fukushima

Keiichi Katabuchi

Isao Furuya

Masahiro Ogawa

A substrate processing apparatus includes a substrate processing part configured to process a substrate under a vacuum atmosphere, a substrate transfer part connected to the substrate processing part and configured to transfer the substrate under an air atmosphere, and a load lock part disposed between the substrate processing part and the substrate transfer part and configured to switch between the air atmosphere and the vacuum atmosphere. At least a part of the load lock part is disposed inside the substrate transfer part.

Substrate processing apparatus

Disclosed herein is a vertical heat treatment system capable of simplifying the structure of various mechanisms in the vicinity of an opening which is formed in a partition wall separating a housing-box transfer area from a treating-object transfer area (a wafer transfer area), and of contributing to space saving, when an object to be treated is carried in the vertical heat treatment system through the opening to carry out a predetermined treatment. In a vertical heat treatment system for carrying an object W to be treated, which is housed in a treating-object housing box closed by an opening/closing lid, in a treating-object transfer area via an opening, which is formed in a partition wallseparating a housing-box transfer area for transferring the treating-object housing box from the treating-object transfer areain an atmosphere of an inert gas, to carry out a predetermined treatment, a standby box transfer means is provided in the housing-box transfer area for holding a treating-object housing box, which houses therein the next object to be carried in the treating-object transfer area, in the vicinity of the opening to cause the treating-object housing box to stand by.

Heat treatment system and method therefore

A heat treatment system and method for cooling a loading chamber that includes a heat treatment furnace for heat-treating an object to be treated. The heat treatment furnace includes a throat for carrying the object in and out, and a cooling mechanism for cooling the vicinity of the throat. The cooling mechanism has a ventilating unit with a ventilating port for sending a cooling fluid toward the vicinity of the throat and a heat exchanger arranged so as to face the ventilating port in the vicinity of the throat. The cooling mechanism also has an intake fan for sucking the cooling fluid in the vicinity of the throat over the heat exchanger. When the object to be treated is carried in, the structure of various mechanisms in the vicinity of the throat is simplified, and space is saved.

Heat treatment system and a method for cooling a loading chamber

A processing system for an object to be processed has a housing defining a closed space. The housing is provided with an opening through which an airtight carrying box is carried in and carried out. The carrying box hermetically contains the object to be processed. A lid operating mechanism for opening and closing the lid of the carrying box is disposed near the opening. A contamination preventing duct covers a space around the lid of the carrying box and supplies a clean gas of a high cleanliness therein at least when the lid of the carrying box is opened.

Processing system for object to be processed

Heat treatment apparatus

Vertical heat treatment apparatus

A heat treatment apparatus comprising a holder, a hollow cylindrical cover, a flat plate, and a processing chamber. The holder holds disk-shaped objects, each having an orientation flat portion at circumference. The objects are arranged coaxially and spaced at predetermined intervals, with the orientation flat portions aligned with one another. The cover has gas ports and surrounds the objects held by the holder and is spaced from a circumference of each object by a predetermined distance. The flat plate is mounted on an inner surface of the cover and opposes the orientation flat portions of the objects. In the processing chamber, the objects held by the holder are processed by using a process gas.

A vertical heat treatment system for heat treating a large number of semiconductor wafers housed in a boat at once includes a heat treatment unit having a boat loading/unloading port, a boat section communicating with the heat treatment unit through the boat loading/unloading port, an elevator mechanism for loading/unloading the boat between the boat section and the heat treatment unit through the boat loading/unloading port, a cassette section provided adjacent to the boat section, a wafer transfer mechanism for transferring wafers between a cassette and the boat, a gas supply mechanism for supplying a non-oxidization gas into the boat section, and a gas shower means for blowing the non-oxidization gas to the wafers in the vicinity of the boat loading/unloading port.

Vertical type heat treatment system

A clean air apparatus includes a housing having an opening through which a carrier housing semiconductor wafers is supplied into the housing and an I/O port for supporting the carrier and a furnace for treating the wafer, provided in the upper portion of the housing. The carriers are at the same time supported by a first carrier stage provided in the upper portion of the housing and supported by a second carrier stage provided in the lower portion of the housing. The carrier or carriers are selectively moved between the I/O port and the first stage, between the I/O port and the second stage, and between the first stage and the second stage. A clean air is applied to the wafers in the carriers supported by the I/O port, the first stage and the second stage.

Clean air apparatus

A vertical heat treating apparatus comprises a casing having an opening through which articles to be processed are loaded and unloaded, a heat treating furnace provided in the casing, a loading and unloading mechanism provided under the heat treating furnace so as to load the articles to be processed in and unload the same from the heat treating furnace, and a clean air flow forming unit provided in a space which is formed in the casing and in which the loading and unloading mechanism is provided so as to form a clean air flow conducted from one side of the casing to the opposite side thereof.

Vertical heat treating apparatus

A vertical type of heat-treating apparatus is provided with a housing that has an opening portion for the carrying in of an object to be processed to the front surface, a heat-treating furnace for performing the required heat-treatment to the object to be processed and which is provided inside the housing, a standby space for the standby of the objects to be processed and carried into the heat-treating apparatus which is provided underneath the heat-treating furnace, a cleaning air introduction opening provided to a lower portion of the housing, a feed path separated from the standby space and connected to the cleaning air introduction opening, a recirculation path which makes one portion of cleaning gas passed the standby space to flow once again to the standby space, and an air exhaust opening for the exhaust to outside the housing of cleaning air which passes through the standby space.

Vertical type heat-treating apparatus

A clean air apparatus comprises a body in which clean air is supplied, an I/O port having an opening for carrying a carrier housing objects to be treated in/out of the body, a door which opens/closes the opening, and dust preventing device for preventing dusts from entering the body from the outside through the opening, when the door is opened.

A semiconductor processing apparatus comprises a main body having an air passage, a plurality of filter units connected in series with the air passage in the main body, each filter unit having an air intake port, an air otlet port and an air blower, the air intake port of each filter unit communicating with the air outlet ports of the filter units disposed upstream side of the air passage, and a mechanism for arranging articles to be processed close to the air outlet port of each filter unit such that air is supplied to the articles to be processed after the air has passed through the corresponding filter units.

Growing community of inventors

Sagamihara, Japan

Kazunari Sakata