Patent Application
20120329000
The present invention relates to a substrate processing apparatus, a substrate processing method, a program and a computer storage medium.
Recently, semiconductor devices become more highly integrated. When a plurality of highly integrated semiconductor devices are arranged within a horizontal plane and connected with one another by wiring into a product, the wiring length may increase to lead to an increase in resistance of the wiring and an increase in wiring delay.
Hence, it is proposed to use the three-dimensional integration technology of stacking the semiconductor devices in three dimensions. In this three-dimensional integration technology, for example, a bonding apparatus is used to join two substrates. The bonding apparatus has a lower chamber in which a substrate holding part is disposed and an upper chamber in which a stage is disposed. In the state that a first substrate and a second substrate are held on the substrate holding part, the upper chamber is lowered toward the lower chamber, and the upper chamber and the lower chamber unite together into one body to form a vacuum chamber. Thereafter, the atmosphere in the vacuum chamber is vacuumed to a predetermined degree of vacuum, then the substrate holding part is raised so that the first substrate and the second substrate are sandwiched and pressed between the substrate holding part and the stage, whereby the first substrate and the second substrate are bonded together (Patent Document 1).
Incidentally, when the first substrate is mounted on the substrate holding part, for example, a transfer arm holding the rear surface of the first substrate is used. In this case, when the first substrate is delivered from the transfer arm to the substrate holding part, the transfer arm interferes with the substrate holding part.
Hence, it is conceivable to use, for example, a raising and lowering pin for supporting and raising and lowering the first substrate to avoid the interference. The raising and lowering pin can vertically move by means of a raising and lowering drive part provided outside the lower chamber, for example, via a support member for the raising and lowering pin. At the support member, a sealing member such as an O-ring is provided to bring the inside of the vacuum chamber into a closed space to maintain it at a predetermined degree of vacuum. Further, a through hole penetrating the substrate holding part in its thickness direction is formed in the substrate holding part, and the raising and lowering pin is inserted into the through hole to be able to project from the upper surface of the substrate holding part. Then, after the first substrate is delivered from the transfer arm to the raising and lowering pin above the substrate holding part, the raising and lowering pin is lowered, whereby the substrate is held on the substrate holding part.
However, when mounting the first substrate on the substrate holding part using the raising and lowering pin, the atmosphere below the substrate holding part may flows out to above from the through hole in the substrate holding part together with particles. In this case, due to the particles flowing out to above the substrate holding part, the bonding of the substrates is not appropriately performed.
Further, since the raising and lowering pin is provided in the vacuum chamber, the volume of the vacuum chamber increases to increase the time required to vacuum the inside of the vacuum chamber to the predetermined degree of vacuum. Thus, the throughput of the boding processing increases.
In addition, the sealing material provided at the support member may be low in reliability so that the inside of the vacuum chamber cannot be brought into a complete closed space. In this case, it is difficult to maintain the atmosphere inside the vacuum chamber at the predetermined degree of vacuum. Further, the load when pressing the substrates decreases in proportion to the pressure difference between the actual air pressure of the atmosphere inside the vacuum chamber and the predetermined degree of vacuum. Then, the substrates cannot be appropriately bonded together.
Moreover, when bonding of a plurality of substrates is performed, the time from when the raising and lowering pin is lowered to the time when the upper chamber is lowered may vary, and as a result of this, the bonding processing of the substrates may not be uniformly performed.
The present invention has been made in consideration of the points, and its object is to smoothly and appropriately process a substrate in a substrate processing apparatus having an upper container movable in the vertical direction and a lower container provided below the upper container to face the upper container.
To achieve the above object, the present invention is a substrate processing apparatus, including: an upper container; a lower container provided below the upper container to face the upper container, movable in a vertical direction relative to the upper container, and uniting with the upper container into one body to form a processing space for the substrate therein; a substrate holding part provided inside the lower container and mounting and holding the substrate thereon; and a delivery arm including a support member extending vertically downward from a lower surface of the upper container, and a delivery member supported by the support member and holding an outer peripheral portion of the substrate and delivering the substrate to/from the substrate holding part. The delivery arm is movable together with the upper container in the vertical direction relative to the lower container, and a cutout groove capable of housing the delivery member is formed at a position corresponding to the delivery member at the outer peripheral portion of the substrate holding part.
According to the present invention, the delivery arm is configured to be movable in the vertical direction and the cutout groove is formed at the outer peripheral portion of the substrate holding part, the substrate can be delivered from the delivery arm to the substrate holding part without interference between the delivery arm and the substrate holding part. Further, since the raising and lowering pin in the prior art becomes unnecessary, a through hole for the raising and lowering pin does not need to be formed in the substrate holding part and particles below substrate holding part never flow out to the processing space. Consequently, processing of the substrate can be appropriately performed. Further, the processing space can be made smaller than that in the prior art, so that when the inside of the processing space is brought to a vacuum atmosphere at a predetermined degree of vacuum, the time required to vacuum the inside of the processing space can be reduced. In addition, since the delivery arm is provided at the lower surface of the upper container, the raising and lowering drive part for the raising and lowering pin in the prior art becomes unnecessary and the processing apace can be made into a closed space. This makes it possible to bring the inside of the processing space to the predetermined degree of vacuum. Further, the delivery arm is movable in the vertical direction together with the upper container, so that even when the processing is performed, for example, on a plurality of substrates in sequence in the substrate processing apparatus, it is possible to suppress variation in the substrate processing and improve the stability of the substrate processing. According to the present invention, it is possible to smoothly and appropriately process the substrate as described above.
The present invention according to another aspect is a substrate processing method using a substrate processing apparatus, the substrate processing apparatus including: an upper container; a lower container provided below the upper container to face the upper container, movable in a vertical direction relative to the upper container, and uniting with the upper container into one body to form a processing space for the substrate therein; a substrate holding part provided inside the lower container and mounting and holding the substrate thereon; and a delivery arm including a support member extending vertically downward from a lower surface of the upper container, and a delivery member supported by the support member and holding an outer peripheral portion of the substrate and delivering the substrate to/from the substrate holding part. The substrate processing method includes: lowering the upper container relative to the lower container toward the substrate holding part, and lowering the delivery arm holding the substrate relative to the lower container toward the substrate holding part; housing the delivery member in a cutout groove formed in the substrate holding part, and delivering the substrate from the delivery arm onto the substrate holding part; and performing predetermined processing on the substrate in a state that the delivery member is housed in the cutout groove.
The present invention according to still another aspect is a program running on a computer of a control unit controlling the substrate processing apparatus to cause the substrate processing apparatus to execute the substrate processing method.
The present invention according to yet another aspect is a readable computer storage medium storing the program.
According to the present invention, in a substrate processing apparatus having an upper container movable in the vertical direction and a lower container provided below the upper container to face the upper container, a substrate can be smoothly and appropriately processed.
Hereinafter, an embodiment will be described.
The joint apparatus 1 has a processing container 10 which can hermetically close its inside as illustrated in
A transfer-in/out port 14 for the wafer W is formed in a side surface of the lower container 12, and a gate valve (not illustrated) is provided at the transfer-in/out port 14.
In a side surface of the lower container 12, a suction port 15 is formed as illustrated in
Inside the lower container 12, a thermal processing plate 20 as a substrate holding part is provided which mounts and holds the wafer W thereon as illustrated in
As illustrated in
Inside the processing container 10 and at the upper container 11, a pressurizing mechanism 30 is provided which presses the wafer W on the later-described thermal processing plate 20 toward the thermal processing plate 20. The pressurizing mechanism 30 has a pressing member 31 coming into abutment with the wafer W and pressing the wafer W, an annular member 32 annularly attached to the upper container 11 and supporting the pressing member 31, and a pressurizing bellows 33 connecting the pressing member 31 and the annular member 32 and expandable and contractable in the vertical direction. Inside the pressing member 31, a heater (not illustrated) generating heat, for example, by power feeding is embedded. Then, by supplying or sucking, for example, compressed air to/from the inside of the pressurizing mechanism 30, that is, the inner space surrounded by the pressing member 31, the pressurizing bellows 33, the annular member 32 and the upper container 11, thereby enabling the pressurizing bellows 33 to expand and contact and the pressing member 31 to move in the vertical direction. Note that since the compressed air is enclosed inside the pressurizing mechanism 30, the pressurizing bellows 33 of the pressurizing mechanism 30 is greater in stiffness than the shield bellows 13 of the processing container 10 so as to withstand the internal pressure by the compressed air.
Inside the processing container 10 and at the upper container 11, the delivery arms 40 for delivering the wafer W between a later-described transfer arm 110 and the thermal processing plate 20 are provided. Two delivery arms 40 are provided outside the thermal processing plate 20, for example, as illustrated in
The delivery arm 40 has a support member 41 extending vertically downward from the lower surface of the upper container 11 as illustrated in
As illustrate in
As illustrated in
In the above joint apparatus 1, a control unit 100 is provided as illustrated in
Next, the transfer arm provided outside the joint apparatus 1 will be described. The transfer arm 110 has arm parts 111 extending in a diameter larger than the diameter of the wafer W along the outer peripheral portion of the wafer W and formed in an almost ¾ circular ring shape, and a support part 112 integrally formed with the arm parts 111 and supporting the arm parts 111 as shown in
Next, the joint processing method of the wafer W performed using the joint apparatus 1 configured as described above will be described.
First, the gate valve provided at the joint apparatus 1 is opened, and the wafer W is transferred by the transfer arm 110 into above the thermal processing plate 20 via the transfer-in/out port 14 as illustrated in
Thereafter, the transfer arm 110 is lowered as illustrated in
Thereafter, the transfer arm 110 is moved to the outside of the joint apparatus 1 via the transfer-in/out port 14, and the gate valve is closed. In this event, the arm part 111 of the transfer arm 110 passes through a passage space 120 formed to be surrounded by the support member 41, the delivery member 42, and the coupling member 43 of the delivery arm 40 as illustrated in
Thereafter, the upper container 11 is lowered to lower the delivery arms 40 as illustrated in
Thereafter, the wafer W is heated by the thermal processing plate 20 to a predetermined temperature, for example, 430° C. In this event, the atmosphere in the processing space K inside the processing container 10 is vacuumed through the suction port 15 by the vacuum pump 16 so that the processing space K is maintained at a predetermined degree of vacuum, for example, a degree of vacuum of 0.1 Pa.
Thereafter, while the temperature of the wafer W is maintained at the predetermined temperature, the compressed air is supplied to the pressurizing mechanism 30 to lower the pressing member 31 as illustrated in
Thereafter, the wafer W is cooled by the thermal processing plate 20 to a predetermined temperature, for example, 200° C. Note that the cooling of the wafer W may be performed using, for example, the heater inside the pressing member 31 or the cooling plate 22.
After the wafer W is joined, the upper container 11 is raised to raise the delivery arms 40 as illustrated in
Thereafter, the transfer arm 110 is raised as illustrated in
Thereafter, the wafer W is transferred out of the joint apparatus 1 via the transfer-in/out port 14 by the transfer arm 110. Thus, a series of the joint processing of the wafer W ends.
According to the above embodiment, the delivery arms 40 are configured to be movable in the vertical direction and the cutout grooves 21 are formed at the outer peripheral portion of the thermal processing plate 20, the wafer can be delivered from the delivery arms 40 to the thermal processing plate 20 without interference between the delivery arms 40 and the thermal processing plate 20. Further, since the raising and lowering pin in the prior art becomes unnecessary, a through hole for the raising and lowering pin does not need to be formed in the thermal processing plate 20 and particles below the thermal processing plate 20 never flow out to the processing space. Consequently, processing of the substrate can be appropriately performed.
Further, since the raising and lowering pin in the prior art becomes unnecessary, it is possible to make the processing space K in the processing container 10 smaller than that in the prior art and decrease the time required to vacuum the atmosphere in the processing space K to a predetermined degree of vacuum. In addition, since the delivery arms 40 are provided at the lower surface of the upper container 11, the raising and lowering drive part for the raising and lowering pin in the prior art becomes unnecessary and the processing apace K can be made into a closed space. This makes it possible to bring the inside of the processing space K into the predetermined degree of vacuum.
Further, since the delivery arms 40 rise and lower along with the movement of the upper container 11 in the vertical direction, the raising and lowering pin and the raising and lowering drive part in the prior art become unnecessary. Therefore, the manufacturing cost of the joint apparatus 1 can be reduced. Further, since the delivery arms 40 do not need to be independently moved, the reliability of movement of the delivery arms 40 is increased.
Further, the delivery arms 40 are movable in the vertical direction together with the upper container 11, so that even when the joint processing is performed, for example, on a plurality of wafers W in sequence in the joint apparatus 1, the reproducibility of the heating start time and the pressure reduction start time of the wafer W can be ensured. Consequently, it is possible to suppress variation in the joint processing of the wafer W and improve the stability of the joint processing.
Further, the guide parts 61 of the delivery members 42 can guide the side surface of the outer peripheral portion of the wafer W and therefore prevent the positional displacement of the wafer W on the delivery members 42. This makes it possible to appropriately delivery the wafer W from the delivery arms 40 to the transfer arm 110. In particular, in the case of delivering the wafer W between the transfer arm and the thermal processing plate using the raising and lowering pin in the prior art, there may be positional displacement of the wafer occurring on the raising and lowering pin, but this problem in the prior art can be overcome in this embodiment.
Furthermore, parts of the guide parts 61 project from the cutout grooves 21, so that when the delivery members 42 are housed in the cutout grooves 21 of the thermal processing plate 20, the wafer W on the thermal processing plate 20 can be positioned at an appropriate position. This makes it possible to appropriately perform the joint processing of the wafer W.
Further, the inner surfaces of the tapered parts 62 of the delivery members 42 are enlarged in a tapered shape from the lower side to the upper side, so that even if the wafer W on the transfer arm 110 is located displaced from the inner surfaces of the guide parts 61 when the wafer W is delivered from the transfer arm 110 to the delivery arms 40, the wafer W is smoothly guided by the guide parts 61 and appropriately delivered to the delivery arms 40.
Further, the passage space 120 surrounded by the support members 41, the delivery members 42, and the coupling members 43 is formed in the delivery arms 40, so that when the transfer arm 110 moves to the outside of the joint apparatus 1, the interference between the transfer arm 110 and the delivery arms 40 can be avoided.
Further, since the support beam 51 of the support member 41 supports the two delivery members 42, the configuration of the delivery arm 40 provided in the processing container 10 can be made simpler than that in the case where the delivery member is provide for each support member.
Though the delivery member 42 of the delivery member 40 has an almost rectangular parallelepiped shape in the above embodiment, the delivery member 42 is not limited to have this shape but may employ various shapes. For example, in place of the delivery member 42, a delivery member 130 in an almost cylindrical shape as illustrated in
The delivery member 130 has a mounting part 131 mounting the lower surface of the outer peripheral portion of the wafer W, a guide part 132 extending upward from the mounting part 131 and guiding the side surface of the outer peripheral portion of the wafer W, and a tapered part 133 extending upward from the guide part 132 and having the inner surface enlarged in a tapered shape from the lower side to the upper side. Note that the mounting part 131, the guide part 132, and the tapered part 133 are formed by cutting the upper portion of the delivery member 130 in the cylindrical shape.
In this case, a cutout groove 140 is formed in a hollow between the upper and lower surfaces of the thermal processing plate 20 at the outer peripheral portion of the thermal processing plate 20, for example, as illustrated in
According to the above embodiment, the through holes 141 are formed only at the four locations in the upper surface of the thermal processing plate 20, the strength of the thermal processing plate 20 can be improved. This makes it possible to increase the load when the pressurizing mechanism 30 presses the wafer W. Further, since the outer peripheral portion of the wafer W is supported by the thermal processing plate 20 other than the through holes 141, the load distribution on the wafer W can be made substantially uniform within the wafer when the wafer W is pressed. Accordingly, the wafer W can be more appropriately joined. In addition, the same effects as those in the above embodiment can be provided also in this embodiment.
Though the transfer arm 110 in the above embodiment has the arm parts 111 configured in an almost ¾ circular ring shape, the transfer arm 110 is not limited to have this shape but can take various forms. For example, as illustrated in
The delivery members 130 of the delivery arms 40 are provided outside the arm parts 151. Further, the through holes 141 and the cutout grooves 140 of the thermal processing plate 20 are also formed at positions corresponding to the delivery members 130. In this case, when the wafer W is delivered between the transfer arm 150 and the delivery arms 40 as illustrated in
Though the joint apparatus 1 performing joint processing on the wafer W has been described as the substrate processing apparatus in the above embodiments, the delivery arms 40 are also applicable to a hydrophobic treatment apparatus performing hydrophobic treatment on the front surface of the wafer W. Note that a case where a delivery arm with a configuration different from that of the delivery arm 40 will be described in the embodiment described below.
As illustrated in
The treatment container 210 has a configuration that an upper container 211 located on the upper side and a lower container 212 located on the lower side are arranged to face each other. The upper container 211 is configured to be movable in the vertical direction by means of, for example, a raising and lowering mechanism (not illustrated). Further, the upper container 211 has an almost cylindrical shape with its lower surface open, and the lower container 212 has an almost cylindrical shape with its upper surface open. With this configuration, the upper container 211 is lowered toward the lower container 212, and the upper container 211 and the lower container 212 are united into one body to form a processing space K for performing hydrophobic treatment on the wafer W inside the upper container 211 and the lower container 212 as illustrated in
In the bottom surface of the lower container 212, an exhaust port 214 is formed as illustrated in
Inside the lower container 212, a thermal processing plate 220 as a substrate holding part is provided which mounts and holds the wafer W thereon. The thermal processing plate 220 is supported by the lower container 212 via a support member (not illustrated). In the thermal processing plate 220, a heater (not illustrated) as a thermal processing mechanism generating heat, for example, by power feeding is embedded and can thermally process the wafer W on the thermal processing plate 220. The heating temperature of the thermal processing plate 220 is controlled, for example, by the above-described control unit 100. At an outer peripheral portion of the thermal processing plate 220, cutout grooves 221 are formed for housing delivery members 242 of later-described delivery arms 240 in the state that the wafer W is delivered from the deliver arms 240 to the thermal processing plate 220 as illustrated in
At the upper portion of the upper container 211, a gas supply pipe 230 for supplying a hydrophobic treatment gas, for example, an HMDS (hexamethyldisilazane) gas into the processing space K is provided as illustrated in
Inside the treatment container 210 and at the upper container 211, the delivery arms 240 for delivering the wafer W between the above-described transfer arm 150 and the thermal processing plate 220 are provided. The delivery arms 240 are provided at three locations at regular intervals on the same circumference with the thermal processing plate 220, for example, as illustrated in
The delivery arm 240 has a support member 241 extending vertically downward from the lower surface of the upper container 211, and a delivery arm 242 supported by the support member 241 and holding the outer peripheral portion of the wafer W and delivering the wafer W between the transfer arm 150 and the thermal processing plate 220 as illustrated in
The delivery member 242 has a mounting part 250 mounting the lower surface of the outer peripheral portion of the wafer W, a guide part 251 extending upward from the mounting part 250 and guiding the side surface of the outer peripheral portion of the wafer W, and a tapered part 252 extending upward from the guide part 251 and having the inner surface enlarged in a tapered shape from the lower side to the upper side.
The delivery members 242 are provided outside the arm parts 151 of the transfer arm 150 as illustrated in
According to this embodiment, it is unnecessary to provide the support beam at the support member 241 of the delivery arm 240, and the support member 241 can directly support the support member 242. Accordingly, the configuration of the delivery arm 240 can be simplified. In addition, the same effects as those in the above embodiment can be provided also in this embodiment.
Note that the upper container 11 is configured to be movable in the vertical direction and the lower container 12 is fixed and not moved in the above embodiment. However, the upper container 11 may be fixed and not moved and the lower container 12 may be movable in the vertical direction, and the same effects can be provided also in this case. Accordingly, the upper container 11 and the lower container 12 only need to be relatively movable in the vertical direction to freely approach and separate to/from each other.
Preferred embodiments of the present invention have been described above with reference to the accompanying drawings, but the present invention is not limited to the embodiments. It should be understood that various changes and modifications are readily apparent to those skilled in the art within the scope of the spirit as set forth in claims, and those should also be covered by the technical scope of the present invention. The present invention is not limited to the embodiments but can take various forms. The present invention is also applicable to the case where the substrate is a substrate other than the wafer, such as an FPD (Flat Panel Display), a mask reticle for a photomask or the like.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2010-066276 | Mar 2010 | JP | national |
| Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind | 371c Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| PCT/JP2011/054733 | 3/2/2011 | WO | 00 | 9/6/2012 |
