Dainippon Screen Mfg. Co., Ltd.

Other

Mitsubishi Denki Kabushiki Kaisha

Takatoshi Chiba

Kiyofumi Nishii

Takashi Ishihara

Toru Sato

Mitsukazu Takahashi

Eiichi Tamaki

Hideo Naomoto

Akihiro Takami

Takashi Ito

Toshihiro Nakajima

Katsuichi Akiyoshi

Hideyuki Teraoka

The present invention relates to a method of producing a recrystallized-material-member by melting a given zone of a crystalline-material-member and moving the molten zone continuously along the crystalline-material-member to recrystallize a desired region of the crystalline-material-member, wherein dimension of the molten zone of the crystalline-material-member is controlled to be constant and/or quality of crystal of the recrystallized-material-member is controlled to be uniform.

Method of producing recrystallized-material-member, and apparatus and heating method therefor

Method of producing recrystallized-material-member, and apparatus and

A substrate heat treatment apparatus includes a heat treatment furnace of a flat configuration, and having a cavity in which a substrate is accommodated. The heat treatment furnace includes a gas supply unit at one side end face, an opening for communication between the cavity and the outside world, and a gas discharge unit in the vicinity of the opening for discharging gas from the cavity at the other side end face. The heat treatment furnace further includes a cover for shutting the opening allowing opening/closing thereof. In the gas exhaust unit, an exhaust chamber is formed on the other side end face along the opening with a partition wall between the opening and the exhaust chamber. An exhaust portion is formed in communication with the outside world in the exhaust chamber. The partition wall is formed so that the edge of the partition wall is displaced away from the inside surface of the cover, whereby a slit-like vent passage extending in the direction of the width of the cavity is formed between the cover and the edge of the partition wall when the opening is shut. The gas flow is uniform in the vicinity of the vent passage when a substrate is loaded/unloaded into and/from the heat treatment furnace, and also during heat treatment. The outside air will not enter the furnace, and no stagnation of the process gas occurs in the furnace.

Substrate heat treatment apparatus

A substrate temperature measuring apparatus includes a temperature signal generating device provided in contact with a substrate for generating a signal indicating its own temperature which follows the temperature of the substrate by thermal conduction, a device connected and responsive to the output of the temperature signal generating device for determining whether contact between the substrate and the temperature signal generating device is appropriate or not, and a device for carrying out a predetermined process according to a determination result of the determining device. It is possible to apply heat treatment to the substrate, to prevent the substrate from being subjected to heat treatment, or to give a necessary alarm according to the determination result. Since the next substrate is at room temperature when it first comes into contact with the temperature signal generating device after heat treatment, the temperature signal generating device lowers its temperature rapidly in such a manner that reflects a state of contact between the substrate and the temperature signal generating device. Based on change of the output of the temperature signal generating device at this time, it is possible to detect an undesired state of contact between the substrate and the temperature signal generating device, and to prevent inaccurate measurement of the temperature of the substrate.

Apparatus for measuring the temperature of a substrate

An apparatus for heat processing a substrate includes a heat processing furnace, which has a flat inner space for accommodating the substrate, and a gas introduction unit which introduces gas supplied via a piping into the inner space of the heat processing furnace via a gas supply inlet of the heat processing furnace. The apparatus effects the heat processing on the substrate placed within a gas flow formed in the inner space. The gas introduction unit includes a first gas introduction chamber, which receives the gas supplied via the piping for reducing a flow velocity of the gas, and a second gas introduction chamber, which is in communication with the first gas introduction chamber, is formed over at least one of outer surfaces of the top furnace wall and the bottom furnace wall at the one end of the heat processing furnace, and extends in a belt-like form through an entire width of the heat processing furnace. A portion of the top furnace wall and/or bottom furnace wall, over which the second gas introduction chamber is formed, has a nozzle opening, which covers the entire width of the heat processing furnace for flowing the gas from the second gas introduction chamber into the inner space in a direction perpendicular to the top furnace wall and/or bottom furnace wall. The gas supply port and the first gas introduction chamber are preferably separated from each other by a partition which forms a portion of a cylindrical or spherical surface and has a plurality of through-holes.

Apparatus for heat processing a substrate

A temperature measuring device for measuring the temperature of a wafer heated by light irradiation includes: a sheath thermocouple for detecting the temperature of a wafer to be measured by contacting the wafer to be measured; and a covering member for covering the surface of the sheath thermocouple. The surface of the covering member is flat in a predetermined region, and the part in the region can plane-contact the surface of the wafer. Thus, the temperature of the wafer can be measured accurately and in a stable manner, and the wafer surface is free from contamination with adhesives or the metal of the thermocouple.

Apparatus for heat-treating wafer by light-irradiation and device for

A semiconductor wafer (1) is thermally treated in a prescribed heating cycle while it is introduced into a furnace casing (4) of a furnace (4) and discharged therefrom. A temperature of a monitor chip (11) is measured by a radiation thermometer (16) immediately before introduction of the semiconductor wafer and memorized as an idling temperature. Then, while the furnace is heated up in order to make a measured temperature of the monitor chip agree with the idling temperature without the semiconductor wafer introduced, a temperature of the furnace casing is measured by a radiation thermometer (8) and memorized as a warm-up temperature. The furnace is controlled on the basis of the warm-up temperature or the idling temperature prior to sequential heat treatment of a number of semiconductor wafers.

Method of controlling heat treatment apparatus for substrate

A temperature control signal (S.sub.1) responsive to a target temperature is biquadrated (S.sub.1.sup.4) to produce a power control signal. A power supply unit supplies electric power to one or more radiant heat sources on the basis of the power control signal, whereby an object such as, for example, a wafer is heated by radiant energy from the one or more radiant heat sources. The wafer temperature is proportional to the biquadrative root of the radiant energy in accordance with the well-known Stefan-Boltzmann's law, whereby the wafer temperature correctly follows a predetermined time-dependent target temperature variation over time.

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Kyoto, Japan

Takatoshi Chiba