In many processes in integrated circuit fabrication, wafers are required to be at elevated temperatures. Wafers may be heated prior to being transferred to a processing module, for example, in pre-heat stations in multi-station wafer processing equipment. Residence time at the pre-heat station may vary. This can lead to poor wafer-to-wafer temperature uniformity, since the wafer continues to approach a steady state temperature asymptotically as it waits for the process chamber to be ready for transfer of wafer.
Methods and apparatuses that decouple wafer temperature from pre-heat station residence time, thereby improving wafer-to-wafer temperature uniformity, are provided. The methods involve maintaining a desired temperature by varying the distance between the wafer and a heater. In certain embodiments, the methods involve rapidly approaching a predetermined initial distance and then obtaining and maintaining a desired final temperature using closed loop temperature control. In certain embodiments, a heated pedestal supplies the heat. The wafer-pedestal gap may be modulated by moving the heated pedestal and/or moving the wafer, e.g., via a movable wafer support. Also in certain embodiments, the closed loop control system includes a real time wafer temperature sensor and a servo controlled linear motor for moving the pedestal or wafer support.
In the following detailed description of the present invention, numerous specific embodiments are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of the invention. However, as will be apparent to those skilled in the art, the present invention may be practiced without these specific details or by using alternate elements or processes. In other instances, which utilize well-known processes, procedures and components have not been described in detail so as not to unnecessarily obscure aspects of the present invention.
In this application, the terms “semiconductor wafer”, “wafer” and “partially fabricated integrated circuit” will be used interchangeably. One skilled in the art would understand that the term “partially fabricated integrated circuit” can refer to a silicon wafer during any of many stages of integrated circuit fabrication thereon. The following detailed description assumes the invention is implemented on a wafer. However, the invention is not so limited. The work piece may be of various shapes, sizes, and materials. In addition to semiconductor wafers, other work pieces that may take advantage of this invention include various articles such as printed circuit boards and the like.
Prior to being placed in a processing chamber, wafers are often preheated. Preheating to a temperature at or near the process temperature increases process chamber throughput, as well reducing thermal stress to the wafer, improving temperature consistency across the wafer and improving deposited film quality and uniformity. With many apparatuses, a wafer is preheated while waiting for the processing station to be available. Once the processing station becomes available, the wafer is transferred from the preheat station to the available process module. In some processing stations, the wafer is preheated in a loadlock. The loadlock serves as a buffer between a room temperature, atmospheric-pressure environment and an elevated temperature, evacuated environment. Loadlock (or other preheat station) residence time may vary widely from wafer to wafer, however, because processing requirements and maximizing throughput necessitate that the processing chamber availability dictates the wafer transfer timing.
Wafer heating prior to processing is typically performed open loop with no control of final temperature. This can lead to poor wafer to wafer temperature uniformity, since the residence time at the pre-heat station may vary and the wafer temperature will continue to rise as the wafer waits for the process chamber to be ready for transfer.
According to various embodiments, the methods and systems described herein involve closed loop feedback control for rapid wafer heating and maintaining target wafer temperature in a preheat station. In certain embodiments, the temperature control systems use wafer temperature sensor and a servo controlled actuator for controlling the rate of heat transfer by varying the gap between the heater and the wafer.
In many embodiments, a heated pedestal supplies the heat to heat the wafer. Heated pedestals generally have embedded electrically powered heating elements. The wafer may rest slightly above the pedestal on a wafer support, with heat transfer from the pedestal to the wafer facilitated by using a gas with high thermal conductivity (e.g., helium) to provide for efficient thermal coupling between the wafer and the pedestal or other support to the wafer. As indicated above, the methods and systems described herein control heat transfer from the heater to the wafer, and thus wafer temperature, by modulating the gap between the heater and wafer. For the purposes of discussion, the description refers to such heated pedestals; however the scope of the invention is not so limited and includes other heat sources wherein the rate of heat transfer can be controlled by modulating the gap between the heat source and the wafer, e.g. radiation-type heat sources, as well as those heat sources embedded within pedestals. Internal and external heat sources include, but are not limited to, resistance-type and circulating-type heat sources.
The two stages of wafer temperature control are illustrated in
The initial approach parameters typically include a set velocity or set acceleration and the predetermined initial gap. The feedback control stage parameters include a max velocity, a max acceleration and a minimum gap. The predetermined initial gap may be experimentally determined for each type of wafer/desired temperature/pedestal temperature. In addition to constraining the predetermined initial gap to distances above that of the thermal distortion threshold gap, the gap should be big enough so that any variation in wafer-pedestal gap across the wafer (due to, for example, variations in the pedestal surface) is insignificant compared to the gap. In certain embodiments, this initial gap may also be set to be the minimum gap during the feedback control stage. In certain embodiments the minimum gap used during the feedback control stage differs from the predetermined initial gap. For example, because the thermal distortion threshold gap is dependent on the temperature differential between the wafer and the pedestal, becoming smaller as the temperature differential becomes smaller, this minimum gap may be smaller than the predetermined initial gap.
The initial approach stage described above is just one example of a stage prior to a feedback control stage. For example, the initial approach stage may be broken up into two or more stages, having different gaps, approach velocities, etc. As mentioned, in certain embodiments, there may be no initial approach, with the feedback control stage beginning immediately after introducing the wafer to the station.
Temperature measurement may be performed by any suitable device including a thermocouple, as in
As indicated, the temperature sensing device sends wafer temperature information to a controller, generally in the form of an output voltage. The controller analyzes the data and in turn sends instructions to a linear motor to modulate the wafer-pedestal gap and keep the temperature at the desired level. In general, accurate feedback control with small overshoot is necessary. In certain embodiments, the controller is programmed with Proportional Integral Derivative (PID) algorithms for stable and accurate control. In certain embodiments, the motor used to move the pedestal and/or wafer support is a servo controlled linear actuator motor, which receives instructions for a prescribed motion based on input from the thermometry equipment. The motor may have embedded logic circuitry to support the PID closed loop algorithms for gap variance.
As indicated above, the wafer-pedestal gap may be modulated by moving the pedestal or a wafer support holding the wafer in relation to each other. In certain embodiments, both may be capable of moving in response to modulate the gap. Any type of pedestal may be used including convex, concave or flat pedestals in various shapes and sizes. The pedestal typically has a heating element and has a thermocouple to control its temperature. In certain embodiments, the temperature is constant and the rate at which heat transfers to the wafer is controlled primarily by modulating the wafer-pedestal gap. However, in some embodiments, the pedestal heater power may also be varied.
The closed loop temperature control using gap variance to control the temperature as discussed above provides easier to implement and low cost alternatives to other closed loop wafer control systems that would use variance in light source, plasma intensity or power supplied to the heater.
A bare silicon wafer was introduced to a chamber having a heated pedestal capable of moving with respect to the wafer to modulate the wafer-pedestal gap. The pedestal temperature was 400 C. Wafer temperature was measured using a pyrometer. Initial approach and closed loop control stages were performed to maintain temperature at about 300 C as follows:
Initial Approach Stage:
Wafer temperature at beginning of initial approach: 280 C
Wafer-Pedestal gap at beginning of initial approach: 0.4 inch
Predetermined initial gap (wafer-pedestal gap at end of initial approach): 0.10 inch
Pedestal velocity during initial approach: 0.04 inch per second
Pedestal acceleration during initial approach: 0.19 inch per s2
Closed-Loop Temperature Control Stage: (Values Below are Typical Values Used During the Optimization of the Process)
Minimum allowable gap: 0.07 inch
Maximum pedestal velocity: 0.60 inch per second
Maximum pedestal acceleration: 3.9 inch per s2
The resulting wafer temperature profile is shown in
Number | Name | Date | Kind |
---|---|---|---|
3612825 | Chase et al. | Oct 1971 | A |
4457359 | Holden | Jul 1984 | A |
4535835 | Holden | Aug 1985 | A |
4563589 | Scheffer | Jan 1986 | A |
5113929 | Nakagawa et al. | May 1992 | A |
5178682 | Tsukamoto et al. | Jan 1993 | A |
5228208 | White et al. | Jul 1993 | A |
5282121 | Bornhorst et al. | Jan 1994 | A |
5447431 | Muka | Sep 1995 | A |
5558717 | Zhao et al. | Sep 1996 | A |
5588827 | Muka | Dec 1996 | A |
5811762 | Tseng | Sep 1998 | A |
6072163 | Armstrong et al. | Jun 2000 | A |
6087632 | Mizosaki et al. | Jul 2000 | A |
6200634 | Johnsgard et al. | Mar 2001 | B1 |
6214184 | Chien et al. | Apr 2001 | B1 |
6228438 | Schmitt | May 2001 | B1 |
6307184 | Womack et al. | Oct 2001 | B1 |
6394797 | Sugaya et al. | May 2002 | B1 |
6413321 | Kim et al. | Jul 2002 | B1 |
6467491 | Sugiura et al. | Oct 2002 | B1 |
6559424 | O'Carroll et al. | May 2003 | B2 |
6563092 | Shrinivasan et al. | May 2003 | B1 |
6639189 | Ramanan et al. | Oct 2003 | B2 |
6860965 | Stevens | Mar 2005 | B1 |
6895179 | Kanno | May 2005 | B2 |
6899765 | Krivts et al. | May 2005 | B2 |
7138606 | Kanno et al. | Nov 2006 | B2 |
7253125 | Bandyopadhyay et al. | Aug 2007 | B1 |
7265061 | Cho et al. | Sep 2007 | B1 |
7327948 | Shrinivasan et al. | Feb 2008 | B1 |
7410355 | Granneman et al. | Aug 2008 | B2 |
20020117109 | Hazelton et al. | Aug 2002 | A1 |
20020162630 | Satoh et al. | Nov 2002 | A1 |
20030013280 | Yamanaka | Jan 2003 | A1 |
20030113187 | Lei et al. | Jun 2003 | A1 |
20040023513 | Aoyama et al. | Feb 2004 | A1 |
20040060917 | Liu et al. | Apr 2004 | A1 |
20040183226 | Newell et al. | Sep 2004 | A1 |
20040187790 | Bader et al. | Sep 2004 | A1 |
20050045616 | Ishihara | Mar 2005 | A1 |
20060018639 | Ramamurthy et al. | Jan 2006 | A1 |
20060081186 | Shinriki et al. | Apr 2006 | A1 |
20070107845 | Ishizawa et al. | May 2007 | A1 |
20090060480 | Herchen | Mar 2009 | A1 |
Number | Date | Country |
---|---|---|
01-107519 | Apr 1989 | JP |
06037054 | Feb 1994 | JP |
07147274 | Jun 1995 | JP |
09-092615 | Apr 1997 | JP |
2005116655 | Apr 2005 | JP |
20030096732 | Dec 2003 | KR |
0211911 | Feb 2002 | WO |