Asm IP Holding B.v.

Asm International N.v.

Theodorus G M Oosterlaken

Lucian C Jdira

Chris G M De Ridder

Klaas P Boonstra

Herbert Terhorst

Bert Jongbloed

Cornelius A Van Der Jeugd

Dieter Pierreux

Frank Huussen

Chaggai Shmuel Ganani

Radko G Bankras

Adriaan Garssen

Steven R A Van Aerde

Christianus G M De Ridder

Jeroen Fluit

Jeroen De Jonge

Nimit Kothari

Shankar Swaminathan

Bhushan Zope

Menso Hendriks

Aniket Patil

Amit Mishra

Juul Keijser

Arjen Klaver

Barend J T Ravenhorst

Maarten Hendrikus Maria Lamers

Gijsbert Hendrik Ronner

Sumit Sachdeva

Julien Laurentius Antonius Maria Keijser

The disclosure relates to a substrate processing apparatus for processing a plurality of substrates. The apparatus comprising a reactor mounted in the apparatus and configured for processing substrates and a reactor mover for moving the reactor for maintenance. The reactor mover is constructed and arranged with a lift to move the reactor to a lower height to allow for access to the reactor by a maintenance worker.

Substrate processing apparatus, reactor mover for moving a reactor of the apparatus and method of maintaining the reactor of the apparatus

An apparatusfor processing a plurality of substratesis provided. The apparatus may have a process tubecreating a process chamber; a heatersurrounding the process tube; a flangefor supporting the process tube; and a doorconfigured to support a wafer boatwith a plurality of substratesin the process chamber and to seal the process chamber. An exhaust operably connected to the process chambermay be provided to remove gas from the process chamber via a first exhaust duct. The apparatus may be provided with an extractor chambersurrounding the first exhaust duct where it connects to the process chamber and connected to a second exhaust ductto remove gas from the extractor chamber.

Apparatus for processing a plurality of substrates provided with an extractor chamber

The disclosure relates to a wafer processing apparatus for processing wafers with a rotatable table provided with a support constructed and arranged to support a removable holder for storing a plurality of wafers. A drive assembly may be provided to provide a rotary movement to the rotatable table around a vertical axis perpendicular to the table; and, a supply line may be constructed and arranged to supply utilities to the rotatable table. The drive assembly may be controlled and configured to create the rotary movement of the table in a clockwise and/or an anticlockwise direction to avoid breakage of the supply line.

Wafer processing apparatus with a rotatable table

The disclosure relates to a flange for a process tube in an apparatus for processing substrates, e.g., a vertical furnace. The flange may be provided with an opening for in use giving access to the process chamber of the process tube and a cooling channel for allowing a cooling fluid to flow there through and cool the flange. A material with a heat conductivity between 0.1 and 40 W/m K may be at least partially provided in between the cooling fluid and the rest of the flange.

Flange and apparatus for processing substrates

Cassette lid opening device for a semiconductor substrate processing apparatus comprising a housing, a door assembly, a transport mechanism, and at least one suspension. The housing has at least one wall with an associated wall opening. The door assembly comprises at least one door plate configured for substantially closing off the associated wall opening of the at least one wall. The transport mechanism includes a carriage which is connected to the door assembly and configured to transport the door assembly parallel to the at least one wall. The at least one suspension is arranged between the at least one door plate and the transport mechanism. The at least one suspension comprises a suspension spring assembly which allows movement of the at least one door plate in a direction perpendicular to the at least one wall.

Cassette lid opening device

An apparatus and method for cleaning or etching a molybdenum film or a molybdenum nitride film from an interior of a reaction chamber in a reaction system are disclosed. A remote plasma unit is utilized to activate a halide precursor mixed with an inert gas source to form a radical gas. The radical gas reacts with the molybdenum film or the molybdenum nitride film to form a by-product that is removed from the interior of the reaction chamber by a purge gas.

Apparatus and methods for performing an in-situ etch of reaction chambers with fluorine-based radicals

A chemical vapor deposition furnace for depositing silicon nitride films is disclosed. The furnace includes a process chamber elongated in a substantially vertical direction and a wafer boat for supporting a plurality of wafers in the process chamber. A process gas injector inside the process chamber is provided with vertically spaced gas injection holes to provide gas introduced at a feed end in an interior of the process gas injector to the process chamber. A valve system connected to the feed end of the process gas injector is being constructed and arranged to connect a source of a silicon precursor and a nitrogen precursor to the feed end for depositing silicon nitride layers. The valve system may connect the feed end of the process gas injector to a cleaning gas system to provide a cleaning gas to remove silicon nitride from the process gas injector and/or the process chamber.

Chemical vapor deposition furnace with a cleaning gas system to provide a cleaning gas

A method for automatically calibrating the position of a wafer handling robot relative to a wafer carrier. The method comprises providing a semiconductor processing assembly comprising the wafer carrier and the wafer handling robot having an end effector, placing a wafer on a wafer support surface of the end effector, moving the end effector to an end position adjacent the wafer carrier, determining a displacement of the wafer on the wafer support surface, repeating these steps until the magnitude of the displacement meets a set end criterion, and storing the latest used end position as a calibrated end position.

Automatic system calibration for wafer handling

An injector configured to be placed in a process chamber of a batch furnace assembly for injecting a gas into said process chamber. The injector has an elongated, tubular housing enclosing an injection chamber. The housing has a gas inlet opening for supplying a gas from a gas source to the injection chamber, at least one gas supply opening for supplying the gas from the injection chamber into the process chamber, and a circumferential wall extending in a longitudinal direction of the housing. The circumferential wall comprises a first lateral wall half and a second lateral wall half. Both lateral wall halves substantially span a length of the housing in the longitudinal direction. The first and second lateral wall halves are fastened to each other by means of mechanical fastening.

Injector

Batch furnace assembly for processing wafers, comprising a process chamber housing defining a process chamber and having a process chamber opening, a wafer boat housing defining a water boat chamber, a door assembly, a differential pressure sensor, and a controller. The door assembly has a closed position in which it closes off the process chamber opening. The door assembly defines in a closed position a door assembly chamber having a purge gas inlet for supplying purge gas to the door assembly chamber for gas sealingly separating the process chamber from the wafer boat chamber. The differential pressure sensor assembly fluidly connects to the door assembly chamber and is configured to determine a pressure difference between a pressure in the door assembly chamber and a reference pressure in a reference pressure chamber. The controller is configured to establish whether the pressure difference is in a desired pressure range.

Batch furnace assembly and method of operating a batch furnace assembly

A wafer boat configured to be placed on a pedestal of a vertical batch furnace, the pedestal having a substantially flat support surface. The wafer boat comprises a support ring defining a substantially flat bottom end surface of the wafer boat, and an alignment ring substantially concentric with the support ring. Either the support surface of the pedestal, or a bottom side of the alignment ring is provided with a plurality of alignment elements respectively protruding upwards from the support surface or downwards from the alignment ring, while the other one is provided with a plurality of alignment openings configured to accommodate therein the plurality of alignment elements. The support ring downwardly protrudes beyond the alignment ring so that, when the wafer boat is placed on the pedestal, the support ring is supported on the support surface while the alignment ring is spaced from the support surface of the pedestal.

Wafer boat

A vertical batch furnace assembly for processing wafers having a cassette handling space, a wafer handling space, and a first wall and separating the cassette handling space from the wafer handling space. The first wall has at least one wafer transfer opening in front of which, at a side of the first wall which is directed to the cassette handling space, a wafer transfer position for a wafer cassette is provided. The cassette handling space comprises a cassette storage having a plurality of cassette storage positions and a cassette handler configured to transfer wafer cassettes between the cassette storage positions and the wafer transfer position. The cassette handler has a first cassette handler arm and a second cassette handler arm.

Fast FOUP swapping with a FOUP handler

A vertical batch furnace assembly for processing wafers comprising a cassette handling space, a wafer handling space, and a first wall separating the cassette handling space from the wafer handling space. The wall having a wafer transfer opening. The wafer transfer opening is associated with a cassette carrousel comprising a carrousel stage having a plurality of cassette support surfaces each configured for supporting a wafer cassette. The carrousel stage is rotatable by an actuator around a substantially vertical axis to transfer each cassette support surface to a wafer transfer position in front of the wafer transfer opening and to at least one cassette load/retrieve position, wherein the vertical batch furnace assembly is configured to load or retrieve a wafer cassette on or from a cassette support surface of the carrousel stage which is in the at least one load/retrieve position.

Vertical batch furnace assembly

Wafer boat handling device, configured to be positioned under a process chamber of a vertical batch furnace, and comprising a rotatable table comprising a first and a second wafer boat support surface. Each wafer boat support surface is configured for supporting a wafer boat. The rotatable table is rotatable by an actuator to rotate both the first and the second wafer support surfaces to a load/receive position in which the wafer boat handling device is configured to load a wafer boat vertically from the rotatable table into the process chamber and to receive the wafer boat from the process chamber onto the rotatable table, a cooldown position in which the wafer boat handling device is configured to cool down a wafer boat, and a transfer position for transferring wafers to and/or from the wafer boat.

Growing community of inventors

Oudewater, Netherlands

Theodorus G M Oosterlaken