Tokyo Electron Limited

Tokyo Electron Kabushiki Kaisha

Tokyo Electron Tohoku Kabushiki Kaisha

Yoshiyuki Fujita

Reiji Niino

Shinji Miyazaki

Hitoshi Kato

Yuuichi Mikata

Katsuya Okumura

Takahiko Moriya

Toshiharu Nishimura

Hideki Lee

Yukio Tojo

Yasuo Imamura

Ken Nakao

Atsushi Endo

Makoto Kobayashi

Naotaka Noro

Tatsuya Tamura

Naoya Kaneda

Tsutomu Haraoka

Yuji Ito

Hiroshi Kumada

Hiroaki Ikegawa

Tomoyuki Ohbu

Toshitake Tsuda

Azusa Iitaka

Jun Hirai

A collecting unit is disposed on an exhaust passage of a semiconductor processing apparatus to collect by-products contained in an exhaust gas. The collecting unit includes a trap body detachably disposed inside a casing and configured to collect a part of the by-products. The trap body includes fins arrayed in a flow direction of the exhaust gas and having a surface on which a part of the by-products is deposited and trapped. The collecting unit further includes a receiving mechanism disposed inside the casing and configured to receive a part of the by-products that peels off from the trap body or an inner surface of the casing to prevent this part from being deposited on a bottom of the casing. The receiving mechanism is configured to allow a part of the by-products held thereon to be in contact with a cleaning gas from above and from below.

Collecting unit for semiconductor process

A vertical heat processing apparatus for performing a heat process on a plurality of target substrates all together includes a vertical process container configured to accommodate the target substrates and having a transfer port at a bottom; a holder configured to support the target substrates at intervals in a vertical direction inside the process container; and a heater disposed around the process container, and configured to supply heat rays through a sidewall of the process container, so as to heat an interior of the process container. A thermal buffer member is disposed between the heater and a lower end side of the process container to surround the lower end side, and is configured to decrease transmissibility of the lower end side for heat rays between the heater and target substrates inside the process container.

Vertical heat processing apparatus and method for using the same

A thermal processing method of the invention includes; a loading step of loading an object to be processed into a processing container, the object having a surface provided with a silicon film having a minutely irregular profile; and a doping step of introducing phosphorus atoms in the silicon film as impurities, by using PH gas as a doping gas while maintaining a temperature of 550 to 750&deg; C.

Method of heat treatment

A cleaning gas is supplied into a processing chamber defined by a processing vessel included in a film forming system, and the temperature of a gas contained in the processing vessel is measured continuously for a predetermined time by a gas temperature measuring means disposed in the processing vessel. The temperature measured by the gas temperature measuring means rises gradually while the cleaning gas flowing through the processing chamber is reacting with an unnecessary film deposited on the surfaces of the processing vessel. A cleaning operation terminating point is determined on the basis of the time-varying measured temperature of the gas measured by the gas temperature measuring means. Preferably, the cleaning operation terminating point determining means determines that the cleaning operation is to be terminated at a time point a certain time after the variation of the measured temperature past a peak. Consequently, the cleaning operation terminating point can exactly be determined so that the unnecessary film can substantially completely be removed without causing insufficient cleaning or overetching.

Method of cleaning film forming apparatus, cleaning system for carrying out the same and film forming system

After a polysilicon film is formed on a wafer, a cleaning gas containing ClF.sub.3 at 10 to 50 vol % is supplied into a reaction tube and an exhaust pipe system at a flow rate of 3000 to 3500 SCCM, so as to remove a polysilicon-based film deposited on an inner wall surface of the reaction tube, the surface of a member incorporated in the reaction tube, and an inner wall surface of the exhaust pipe system while the film forming process, by etching using ClF.sub.3. The cleaning gas is supplied while the temperature in the reaction tube is maintained at 450.degree. C. or higher, and in a pressure condition set at the maintained temperature such that an etching rate of the polysilicon-based film by the cleaning gas is higher than an etching rate of silicon which is the material of the reaction tube or the member incorporated in the reaction tube.

Method of cleaning reaction tube and exhaustion piping system in heat

In order to form a film on a surface of a semiconductor wafer, a multiplicity of wafers are individually mounted on ring-shaped mounts of a wafer boat, while the temperature within a reaction tube is set at, e.g., 400.degree. C. under a nitrogen gas atmosphere. After loading the wafer boat into the reaction tube, the temperature within the reaction tube is raised up to, e.g., 620.degree. C. at a rate of, e.g., 100.degree. C./min, and SiH.sub.4 gas is supplied onto the surface of a silicon substrate to form a polysilicon film. After film formation, air is forced to flow along the internal surface of the heating section to forcibly cool the interior of the reaction tube. In the case of forming a metal silicon film using a wafer having a silicon substrate and a metal film formed on the surface of the silicon substrate, the temperature within the reaction tube is set at, e.g. 100.degree. C. for loading the wafers. This suppresses the growth of a natural oxidation film and improves characteristics of a semiconductor device. The same principle may apply to an oxide film formation and an impurity dispersion.

Heat treatment process for wafers

Prior to formation of a polysilicon film on a wafer, a pre-coat film having a thickness of 1 .mu.m and consisting of polysilicon is formed on the inner wall surface of a reaction tube or the surface of a member incorporated in the reaction tube. A polysilicon film is formed on the wafer at a temperature of 450.degree. C. to 650.degree. C. A cleaning gas containing ClF.sub.3 having a concentration of 10 to 50 vol. % is supplied into the reaction tube at a flow rate to an area of an object be cleaned of 750 to 3,500 SCCM/m.sup.2 to remove a polysilicon film deposited on the inner wall surface of the reaction tube or the surface of the member incorporated in the reaction tube by etching using the ClF.sub.3. In this case, the cleaning gas is supplied while a temperature in the reaction tube is kept at a temperature of 450.degree. C. to 650.degree. C. and in a pressure condition set at the kept temperature such that an etching rate of a polysilicon film by the cleaning gas is higher than an etching rate of quartz constituting the reaction tube or the member incorporated in the reaction tube.

Method of cleaning reaction tube

Growing community of inventors

Nirasaki, Japan

Yoshiyuki Fujita