Tokyo Electron Limited

Tomohisa Shimazu

Kazuhide Hasebe

Hiroyuki Yamamoto

Takanori Saito

Kenichi Yamaga

Yukimasa Saito

Hisaei Osanai

Toshiyuki Makiya

Tsuyoshi Takizawa

Manabu Honma

Ken Nakao

Makoto Nakamura

Harunori Ushikawa

Eiichiro Takanabe

Junichi Kobayashi

Kenji Honma

The present invention is a thermal processing unit including: a heating-furnace body whose upper end has an opening; a heating unit provided on an inside wall of the heating-furnace body; a reaction container consisting of a single tube contained in the heating-furnace body; a gas-discharging-pipe connecting portion formed at an upper portion of the reaction container; and a first temperature controlling unit provided around the gas-discharging-pipe connecting portion.

Thermal processing unit

Thermal treatment apparatus

The process tube of a vertical heat-treating apparatus for semiconductor wafers has a port at the bottom to be opened and closed by a lid. A sealing mechanism is arranged to seal the connecting portion between the flange of the port and the flange of the lid. The flanges are provided with annular mirror surfaces on the inner side, which face and contact each other to form an inner seal. The flanges are also provided with annular counter surfaces on the outer side, which face each other with a gap therebetween. A metal sheet member is arranged in the gap such that an outer seal is formed by the metal sheet member and the counter surfaces. The metal sheet member has sheets vacuum-stuck onto the counter surfaces, respectively. A buffer space is formed between the inner and outer seals, and is vacuum-exhausted by an exhaust unit.

Enveloping device and vertical heat-treating apparatus for semiconductor process system

In a vertical thermal treatment apparatus wherein a plurality of semiconductor wafers are held in multiple layers within a wafer boat, the wafer boat is mounted onto a turntable at the upper end of a rotational shaft that penetrates from a bottom portion through a shaft hole into a vertical reaction vessel, and the wafers are subjected to a thermal treatment while the wafer boat is rotated; a seal is formed between the rotational shaft and the penetration portion, to restrain the intrusion of gases and moisture into the seal portions from the interior of the reaction vessel and to eliminate adverse effects on the seal materials. The space within a gap between a shaft hole,and a rotational shaft,communicates with a space between a fixing member,and an outer shell member,and a magnetic seal portion,is provided between this fixing member,and the outer shell member,This increases the effective length of the shaft hole,from the reaction vessel to the magnetic seal portion,preventing the intrusion of gases and moisture into the magnetic seal portion,from the reaction vessel during reduced-pressure CVD and also alleviating the effects of heat from the reaction vessel which is heated to a high temperature by a heating furnace,thus preventing deterioration of the magnetic fluid.

Vertical thermal treatment apparatus

Enveloping device and vertical heat-treating apparatus for semiconductor

Heat-treating boat for semiconductor wafers

Quartz cover

In a vertical substrate processing apparatus including a vertical reaction vessel having an open lower end, a lid closing the open lower end of the reaction vessel, a rotation shaft extending through the lid to rotate a wafer boat in the reaction vessel, a bore formed in a casing disposed below the lid to receive the rotation shaft is sealed hermetically by a magnetic sealing unit, the leakage of a gas emanated from magnetic fluid of the magnetic sealing unit into the reaction vessel is suppressed during a LPCVD process and, if the vertical processing apparatus is used for both a LPCVD process and an oxidation process, the corrosion of the components of a rotating mechanism by HCl gas is prevented. To achieve such functions, the bore is evacuated through an exhaust passage opening in to the bore at a position on the side of the reaction vessel with respect to the magnetic sealing unit. The deposition of reaction byproducts on rotating members can be prevented by supplying an inert gas, such as N.sub.2 gas, through a gas supply passage when the bore is evacuated. When carrying out an oxidation process, a purging gas is supplied through the gas supply passage into the bore to prevent leakage of HCl gas into the bore.

Growing community of inventors

Minato-ku, Japan

Tomohisa Shimazu