This application claims priority from Japanese Patent Application No. 2017-087910, filed on Apr. 27, 2017, the entire contents of which are herein incorporated by reference.
The present disclosure relates to an electrostatic chuck and a substrate fixing device.
Various processes such as plasma etching and CVD (Chemical Vapor Deposition) are applied to a substrate such as a silicon wafer. In this manner, a semiconductor device such as an LSI (Large Scale integration) is manufactured.
These processes are performed inside a chamber while the substrate is fixed by an electrostatic chuck. The electrostatic chuck is a device which adsorbs the substrate by electrostatic force. Since the electrostatic chuck can generate the electrostatic force in a simple structure, the electrostatic chuck is widely spread. For example, the following documents disclose an electrostatic chuck for absorbing a substrate by electrostatic force:
[PTL 1] JP-A-2011-519486
[PTL 2] JP-A-2016-503962
[PTL 3] WO 2014/084334
[PTL 4] JP-A-2000-191369
However, the processes such as plasma etching and CVD are performed on the substrate while the substrate is heated. Therefore, when adsorptive force of the electrostatic chuck is lowered during the heating, there is a fear that the substrate may be detached from the electrostatic chuck to thereby result in a decrease in a yield of the semiconductor device.
According to one aspect, an object of the present disclosure is to provide an electrostatic chuck whose adsorptive force is hardly lowered even during heating, and a substrate fixing device.
According to one or more aspects of the present disclosure, there is provided an electrostatic chuck.
The electrostatic chuck comprises:
an insulating plate consisting of alumina, and YAG (Yttrium Aluminum Garnet) added with cerium, and configured to mount a substrate thereon; and
an electrode which is embedded in the insulating plate and configured to generate electrostatic force for adsorbing the substrate.
According to the one aspect, the insulating plate consists of the alumina, and the YAG added with the cerium. In this manner, the volume resistivity of the insulating plate can be suppressed from being lowered even when the insulating plate is heated. As a result, the volume resistivity of the insulating plate can be maintained at a high value. Accordingly, electric charges generated in the electrode hardly leak to the insulating plate, and adsorptive force of the electrostatic chuck is hardly lowered even when the electrostatic chuck is heated.
An embodiment of the invention will be described below in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.
For example, the semiconductor manufacturing apparatus 1 is a plasma etching apparatus. The semiconductor manufacturing apparatus 1 includes a chamber 2 and a substrate fixing device 3 disposed in the chamber 2.
The substrate fixing device 3 is a device which fixes a substrate S inside the chamber 2. The substrate fixing device 3 includes a base plate 4, and an electrostatic chuck 5 fixed on the base plate 4.
Of the substrate fixing device 3, the base plate 4 is an electrically conductive plate also serving as a lower electrode. The base plate 4 is fixed to a bottom portion of the chamber 2 by not-shown screws. In this example, an aluminum plate is used as the base plate 4, and a high-frequency power supply 9 is connected to the base plate 4.
On the other hand, the electrostatic chuck 5 adsorbs the substrate S by electrostatic force. Thus, the electrostatic chuck 5 fixes the substrate S inside the chamber 2. For example, a semiconductor substrate such as a silicon wafer may be used as the substrate S to be fixed.
In addition, an upper electrode 8 is provided at an upper portion of the chamber 2 to face the substrate fixing device 3. The upper electrode 8 serves as a shower head for supplying etching gas G inside the chamber 2.
Further, an outlet 2a is provided at a lower portion of the chamber 2. The etching gas G can be discharged from the outlet 2a.
In practical use, high-frequency electric power is applied to the base plate 4 from the high-frequency power supply 9 while the upper electrode 8 is maintained at a ground potential. Thus, the etching gas G is turned into plasma. As a result, the substrate S is etched.
As shown in
The insulating plate 10 is a ceramics plate which is hardly corroded by the etching gas. First and second electrodes 11 and 12 and a heater 13 are embedded in the insulating plate 10. The first electrode 11 and the second electrode 12 may be hereinafter simply referred to as electrodes 11 and 12 for convenience of explanation.
Of the insulating plate 10, a positive voltage of a first DC power supply 15 is applied to the first electrode 11, and a negative voltage of a second DC power supply 16 is applied to the second electrode 12.
Thus, positive and negative electric charges are generated in the first electrode 11 and the second electrode 12 respectively. At the same time, electric charges opposite in polarity to the generated electric charges are induced in a back surface of the substrate S, so that coulomb force for adsorbing the substrate S is generated in each electrode 11, 12. The electrostatic chuck using such coulomb force as electrostatic force for adsorbing the substrate S is also referred to as coulomb type electrostatic chuck.
Incidentally, it is preferable that a distanced between an upper surface 10a of the insulating plate 10 and the electrode 11, 12 is made as narrow as possible in order to increase the electrostatic force for adsorbing the substrate S. In this example, the distance d is set at several ten μm to several hundred μm.
In addition, the heater 13 is a resistance heating type heater which generates heat due to currents supplied from the first power supply 15 and the second power supply 16. During plasma etching, the substrate S is heated at room temperature to a temperature of about 200° C.
As shown in
In addition, holes 20 which are penetrated by not-shown lift pins for lifting up the substrate S are provided in each of the base plate 4 and the electrostatic chuck 5.
Further, screw holes 21 for fixing the base plate 4 to the bottom portion of the chamber 2 are also provided in the base plate 4.
Next, a method for manufacturing the aforementioned electrostatic chuck 5 will be described.
First, as shown in
Concentrations of the respective components in the sheet 10b are not limited particularly. When molar concentration of the alumina and molar concentration of the yttria in the sheet 10b are expressed as X mol % and (100-X) mol %, X falls into a range of from 80 to 90 according to the embodiment.
In addition, molar concentration of the cerium dioxide in the sheet 10b is 0.5 mol % to 1 mol %. In this case, molar concentration of the cerium alone in the sheet 10b is 0.4 mol % to 0.8 mol %.
Incidentally, a metal paste of tungsten etc. is printed as each electrode 11, 12 or the heater 13 in advance in a layer between adjacent ones of the plurality of sheets 10b.
Further, the number of the layered sheets 10b is also not limited particularly. For example, five to several ten sheets 10b may be layered.
Next, the plurality of sheets 10b are heated at a temperature of about 1,500° C., as shown in
YAG (Yttrium Aluminum Garnet: Y3Al5O12) in addition to alumina is produced in the sintered insulating plate 10, as will be described later. Concentration of the YAG in the insulating plate 10 is 35 wt % while concentration of the alumina in the insulating plate 10 is 65 wt %.
Further, the concentration of the cerium alone does not change before and after the sintering. Therefore, the concentration of the cerium in the insulating plate 10 is 0.4 mol % to 0.8 mol % which is the same as that in the sheet 10b prior to the sintering.
Incidentally, in order to prevent electric conductivity from being lost due to oxidization of the tungsten contained in the electrode 11, 12 or the heater 13, it is preferable that the sintering in this step is performed in a deoxidized atmosphere from which oxygen has been removed. For example, an atmosphere composed of only nitrogen and hydrogen may be used as such a deoxidized atmosphere.
In the aforementioned manner, the basic structure of the electrostatic chuck 5 according to the embodiment is completed.
According to the aforementioned embodiment, only the alumina, the yttria and the cerium dioxide are used as materials of the insulating plate 10, as described above. The present inventor conducted various examinations about the insulating plate 10 obtained thus. The examinations will be described below.
About Crystal Phases
The present inventor examined what kinds of crystal phases were contained in the insulating plate 10 by XRD (X-Ray Diffraction).
Results of the examination are shown in
In this examination, respective intensity profiles of the diffracted X-rays in alumina crystal, YAG crystal and the insulating plate 10 were examined. Incidentally, in
As shown in
The results reveal that the yttrium ingot and the cerium ingot are not contained in the insulating plate 10, but the insulating plate 10 consists of the alumina crystal and the YAG crystal.
About Element Distributions
The present inventor examined distributions of the respective elements in the insulating plate 10 by an SEM/EDX (Scanning Electron Microscope/Energy Dispersive X-ray Spectroscopy) method.
Results of the examination are shown in
Of
As shown in
On the other hand,
The aluminum is present in a region which looks bright in
The yttrium is present in a region which looks bright in
The cerium is present in a bright region of
Incidentally, the cerium is absent from a dark region of
The aforementioned results reveal that the insulating plate 10 consists of the alumina crystal, and the YAG crystal added with the cerium.
About Temperature Dependency of Volume Resistivity
The present inventor examined how the volume resistivity of the insulating substrate 10 is varied due to temperature.
A result of the examination is shown in
In
Incidentally, in the examination, volume resistivities of insulating plates 10 according to a first comparative example and a second comparative example in addition to the insulating plate 10 according to the embodiment were also examined.
Of these insulating plates 10, the insulating plate 10 according to the first comparative example is a ceramics plate in which powder of alumina (Al2O3), powder of magnesium oxide (MgO), powder of calcium oxide (CaO), powder of silicon dioxide (SiO2), and powder of yttria (Y2O3) are mixed and sintered.
On the other hand, the insulating plate 10 according to the second comparative example is a ceramics plate in which alumina and yttria are mixed and sintered to have the same molar concentrations as those in the embodiment respectively. Differently from the embodiment, the cerium is however not added into the ceramics plate according to the second comparative example.
As shown in
When the volume resistivity decreases in this manner, electric charges are apt to flow through the insulating plate 10. Accordingly, electric charges in each electrode 11, 12 (see
Particularly, plasma etching or CVD etc. for manufacturing a semiconductor device is performed on the substrate S while the substrate S is heated at a temperature not lower than room temperature. Accordingly, when the adsorptive force of the insulating plate 10 is lowered during the heating, the substrate S is detached from the electrostatic chuck 5 to thereby result in a decrease in a yield of the semiconductor device.
In order to prevent the substrate S from being detached, it is desirable that the insulating plate 10 practically has the volume resistivity of 1×1016 Ω·cm or higher. In the first comparative example, the volume resistivity is lower than 1×1016 Ω·cm at a temperature lower than 150° C.
On the other hand, in the second comparative example, a decrease in the volume resistivity is suppressed more greatly than that in the first comparative example. However, when the temperature reaches 150° C., the volume resistivity approaches 1×1016 Ω·cm.
In contrast, in the embodiment, a decrease in the volume resistivity when the temperature increases is suppressed more greatly than that in each of the first comparative example and the second comparative example. Even when the temperature is 150° C., the volume resistivity of the insulating plate 10 sufficiently exceeds 1×1016 Ω·cm which is large enough to withstand practical use.
Particularly, the volume resistivity according to the embodiment is higher than the volume resistivity according to the second comparative example in which no cerium is added into the insulating plate 10. Therefore, this fact reveals that the addition of the cerium is effective in suppressing the volume resistivity from decreasing with an increase in the temperature.
In addition, the volume resistivity according to the embodiment is higher than the volume resistivity according to the first comparative example for the following reason.
Of
As shown in
On the other hand,
As shown in
In the embodiment, the decrease in the volume resistivity is suppressed more greatly than that in the first comparative example as shown in
About Easiness of Removal of Substrate S
After the processes such as plasma etching and CVD on the substrate S are completed, application of a voltage to each electrode 11, 12 (see
Therefore, the present inventor examined easiness of the removal of the substrate S as follows.
In the examination, after the application of the voltage to the electrode 11, 12 was stopped, a current flowing between the front surface of the insulating plate 10 and the electrode 11, 12 was measured.
In
Further, in the examination, currents flowing through the respective insulating plates 10 according to the first comparative example and the second comparative example described in
As shown in
In a similar manner or the same manner, also in the second comparative example in which cerium was removed from the insulating plate 10 according to the embodiment, it took a long time until the current was attenuated.
In contrast, in the embodiment, the current was attenuated quickly after the application of the voltage to the electrode 11, 12 was stopped.
The results reveal that due to the cerium added to the YAG crystal of the insulating plate 10 as in the embodiment, electrostatic force acting from the insulating plate 10 onto the substrate S can be attenuated quickly so that the substrate S can be removed from the insulating plate 10 easily.
Preferred Cerium Concentration
As shown in
The present inventor examined the desired concentration with which the cerium should be added into the insulating plate 10, from a different viewpoint from these effects. Results of the examination are shown in
Incidentally, the relative density is defined as a percentage for a ratio of density of the actually produced insulating plate 10 to density of an ideal insulating plate 10 having no hole.
Further, in this examination, samples for each of cases where concentrations of the cerium dioxide were 0 mol %, 0.5 mol % and 1 mol % were produced. The relative densities of the samples are shown in a box-and-whisker diagram as in
As shown in
In order to generate adsorptive force large enough for practical use in the insulating plate 10, it is preferable that the relative density of the insulating plate 10 is not lower than 95%. According to
Incidentally, when the concentration of the cerium dioxide is 0.5 mol %, concentration of the cerium alone contained in the insulating plate 10 is 0.4 mol %. Accordingly, as long as the concentration of the cerium in the insulating plate 10 is not lower than 0.4 mol %, the relative density of the insulating plate 10 can be increased to be not lower than 95%, which is high enough for practical use, as described above.
On the other hand,
As shown in
When the cerium is consumed thus for the production of the cerium compound, it is difficult to add the cerium to YAG crystal. As a result, it is difficult to obtain various effects which can be obtained due to the cerium, such as suppression of resistance reduction (
Therefore, it is preferable that an upper limit of the concentration of the cerium dioxide in the sheet 10b prior to sintering is set to be not higher than 1 mol % as in the examination in
According to the aforementioned embodiment, the insulating plate 10 is composed of only the alumina, and the YAG added with the cerium. Thus, as shown in
(Modifications)
In the aforementioned embodiment, the heater 13 for heating the substrate S is embedded in the insulating plate 10, as shown in
In this example, a heater 13 is provided between a base plate 4 and an electrostatic chuck 5.
On the other hand,
In this example, a heater 13 is provided inside a base plate 4.
Also in any of the cases of
As described above, the exemplary embodiment and the modification are described in detail. However, the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiment and the modification, and various modifications and replacements are applied to the above-described embodiment and the modifications without departing from the scope of claims.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
---|---|---|---|
2017-087910 | Apr 2017 | JP | national |
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Number | Date | Country |
---|---|---|
2000-191369 | Jul 2000 | JP |
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2016-503962 | Feb 2016 | JP |
2014084334 | Jun 2014 | WO |
Number | Date | Country | |
---|---|---|---|
20180315634 A1 | Nov 2018 | US |