TRANSFER CHAMBERS WITH AN INCREASED NUMBER OF SIDES, SEMICONDUCTOR DEVICE MANUFACTURING PROCESSING TOOLS, AND PROCESSING METHODS
A substrate processing system includes a factory interface, a transfer chamber, and a robot. The transfer chamber includes four first facets adapted for attachment to one or more first processing chambers and three second facets, wherein each of the three second facets has a width that is narrower than that of each of the four first facets. The system includes a second processing chamber having a first interface attached to a first of the three second facets and a load lock attached to a second of the three second facets and to the factory interface. The system also includes a robot attached to a bottom of the transfer chamber, the robot adapted to transfer substrates to and from the one or more first processing chambers, the second processing chamber, and the load lock.
This is a continuation application of, and claims priority from, U.S. patent application Ser. No. 15/029,502, filed Apr. 14, 2016, and entitled “TRANSFER CHAMBERS WITH AN INCREASED NUMBER OF SIDES, SEMICONDUCTOR DEVICE MANUFACTURING PROCESSING TOOLS, AND PROCESSING METHODS,” which is a national stage application filed under 35 U.S.C. § 371 of PCT Application No. PCT/US2014/063708, filed Nov. 3, 2014, and entitled “TRANSFER CHAMBERS WITH AN INCREASED NUMBER OF SIDES, SEMICONDUCTOR DEVICE MANUFACTURING PROCESSING TOOLS, AND PROCESSING METHODS,” which claims priority from U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 61/899,862 filed Nov. 4, 2013, and entitled “SEMICONDUCTOR DEVICE MANUFACTURING PLATFORM WITH AN INCREASED NUMBER OF SIDES,” each of which is hereby incorporated by reference herein in its entirety for all purposes. This application is also a related sibling of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 16/359,561, entitled “TRANSFER CHAMBERS WITH AN INCREASED NUMBER OF SIDES, SEMICONDCUTOR DEVICE MANUFACTURING PROCESSING TOOLS, AND PROCESSING METHODS,” which is also incorporated by this reference.
FIELDThe present disclosure relates to semiconductor device manufacturing, and more specifically to semiconductor device manufacturing platform configurations.
BACKGROUNDManufacturing of semiconductor devices involves performing a sequence of procedures with respect to a substrate or “wafer” such as a silicon substrate, a glass plate, and the like. These steps may include polishing, deposition, etching, photolithography, heat treatment, and so forth. Usually a number of different processing steps may be performed in a single processing system or “tool” that includes a plurality of processing chambers. However, it is generally the case that other processes are performed at other processing locations within a fabrication facility, and it is accordingly necessary that substrates be transported within the fabrication facility from one processing location to another. Depending on the type of semiconductor device to be manufactured, there may be a relatively large number of processing steps employed, to be performed at many different processing locations within the fabrication facility.
It is conventional to transport substrates from one processing location to another within substrate carriers such as sealed pods, cassettes, containers, and so forth. It is also conventional to employ automated substrate carrier transport devices, such as automatic guided vehicles, overhead transport systems, substrate carrier handling robots, and the like, to move substrate carriers from location to location within the fabrication facility or to transfer substrate carriers from or to a substrate carrier transport device.
Such transport of substrates typically involves exposing the substrates to room air, or at least to non-vacuum conditions. Either may expose the substrates to an undesirable environment (e.g., oxidizing species) and/or other contaminants.
SUMMARYIn one aspect, a substrate processing system includes a factory interface and a transfer chamber, which includes four first facets adapted for attachment to one or more first processing chambers and three second facets, wherein each of the three second facets has a width that is narrower than that of each of the four first facets. The system further includes a second processing chamber having a first interface attached to a first of the three second facets. The system further includes a load lock attached to a second of the three second facets, the load lock also attached to the factory interface. The system further includes a robot attached to a bottom of the transfer chamber, the robot adapted to transfer substrates to and from the one or more first processing chambers, the second processing chamber, and the load lock.
In another aspect, a substrate processing system includes a transfer chamber having four first facets adapted for attachment to one or more first processing chambers and three second facets, wherein each of the three second facets has a width that is narrower than that of each of the four first facets. The system further includes a single robot attached to a bottom of the transfer chamber and adapted to pass substrates through the four first facets and the three second facets. The system further includes an interface unit comprising an integral unit body that comprises: a mating piece having three interface sides to attach to the three second facets; a second processing chamber having a first of the three interface sides; a load lock having a second of the three interface sides; and a third processing chamber having a third of the three interface sides.
In another aspect, a mainframe for a semiconductor manufacturing device is provided. The mainframe includes a transfer chamber. The transfer chamber includes a bottom and four first facets attached to the bottom, wherein each of the first four facets is adapted for attachment to a first processing chamber. The transfer chamber includes two second facets attached to the bottom, wherein each of the two second facets has a width that is narrower than that of each of the four first facets and is adapted for attachment to a second processing chamber that is smaller than the first processing chamber. The transfer chamber further includes a single third facet attached to the bottom, wherein the single third facet is adapted for attachment to a load lock. The transfer chamber further includes a robot attached to the bottom, the robot adapted to transfer substrates to and from each first processing chamber, each second processing chamber, and the load lock.
Numerous other aspects are provided in accordance with these and other embodiments of the disclosure. Other features and aspects of embodiments of the present disclosure will become more fully apparent from the following detailed description, the appended claims, and the accompanying drawings.
The drawings, described below, are for illustrative purposes only and are not necessarily drawn to scale. The drawings are not intended to limit the scope of this disclosure in any way.
Reference will now be made in detail to the example embodiments of this disclosure, which are illustrated in the accompanying drawings. Features of the various embodiments described herein may be combined with each other, unless specifically noted otherwise.
In accordance with embodiments of the present disclosure, a semiconductor device manufacturing platform, such as a tool and/or mainframe (referred to herein as a “processing tool” or “tool”), is provided that includes a transfer chamber including an increased number of locations (e.g., facets) for attaching or otherwise coupling processing chambers and substrate transfer units (e.g., one or more load locks and possibly one or more pass-through units). For example, in some embodiments, at least seven, at least eight, or even nine or more attachment locations may be provided in a transfer chamber within a single tool. Providing additional attachment locations increases a number of processing steps that may be performed at a single tool, may increase throughput by allowing for chamber redundancy (e.g., allowing multiple versions of the same processing chambers to be used in parallel) and allows substrates to remain under vacuum conditions during a larger portion of a manufacturing process.
These and other embodiments are described below with reference to
In the embodiment of
In the embodiment of
As shown in
The factory interface 106 is configured to receive one or more substrate carriers 114a-114d for supplying substrates to the processing chambers 110a-f. While four substrate carriers are shown in
As shown in
In some embodiments, to provide additional strength to the transfer chamber 102, an upper lid 208 of the transfer chamber 102 may be provided with extra material in regions between the second openings 206a-206f. For example, a rib 210 may be provided between each opening 206a-f and/or material may be removed in regions 212 in front of each second opening 206a-206f. For example, each rib 210 may extend about 20-30 mm further into the transfer chamber region than regions 212. Other rib sizes and/or configurations may be employed.
In the embodiment of
The processing tool 600a provides up to ten sides (facets) 612a-612j to which processing chambers may be coupled. In other embodiments, additional transfer chambers may be coupled with the addition of other pass-through units to provide any number of linked processing chambers.
In the embodiment of
In each of
In another aspect, a method of semiconductor device processing is provided. The method includes providing a transfer chamber (e.g., transfer chamber 102, 102a) having least one first side (e.g., single side 504 or first set of sides 504a-104c) of a first width coupled to one or more substrate transfer units (e.g., one or more load locks or one or more pass-through units 606) and at least a second set of sides of a second width that is different than the first width, the second set of sides coupled to a plurality of processing chambers, wherein a total number of sides of the transfer chamber is at least seven, but may be eight, nine, or more. The method further includes transferring substrates between the one or more substrate transfer units (e.g., load locks or pass-through units 606) and at least one of the plurality of processing chambers (e.g., with a single robot (e.g., robot 214 in the transfer chamber.
While described primarily with reference to seven, eight or nine sides, it will be understood that the transfer chamber 102 may include any suitable number of sides, such as ten sides, eleven sides, twelve sides, or the like, or fewer than seven sides.
The foregoing description discloses only example embodiments of the disclosure. Modifications of the above-disclosed apparatus, systems and methods which fall within the scope of the disclosure will be readily apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art. Accordingly, while the present disclosure has been disclosed in connection with example embodiments, it should be understood that other embodiments may fall within the scope of the disclosure, as defined by the following claims.
Claims
1. A substrate processing system comprising:
- a factory interface;
- a transfer chamber comprising: four first facets adapted for attachment to one or more first processing chambers; and three second facets, wherein each of the three second facets has a width that is narrower than that of each of the four first facets;
- a second processing chamber having a first interface attached to a first of the three second facets;
- a load lock attached to a second of the three second facets, the load lock also attached to the factory interface; and
- a robot attached to a bottom of the transfer chamber, the robot adapted to transfer substrates to and from the one or more first processing chambers, the second processing chamber, and the load lock.
2. The substrate processing system of claim 1, further comprising a degas chamber having a second interface attached to a third of the three second facets.
3. The substrate processing system of claim 2, wherein the second of the three second facets is positioned between the first and the second of the three second facets.
4. The substrate processing system of claim 1, further comprising the one or more first processing chambers, wherein the one or more first processing chambers are epitaxial deposition chambers.
5. The substrate processing system of claim 1, wherein the load lock is one of a single, a batch, or a stacked load lock.
6. The substrate processing system of claim 1, wherein the factory interface is laterally offset from a geometrical center of the transfer chamber.
7. The substrate processing system of claim 1, wherein the robot comprises two arms, each attached to a separate end effector.
8. The substrate processing system of claim 1, wherein the second processing chamber is one of a pre-processing chamber or a post-processing chamber.
9. A substrate processing system comprising:
- a transfer chamber comprising: four first facets adapted for attachment to one or more first processing chambers; and three second facets, wherein each of the three second facets has a width that is narrower than that of each of the four first facets;
- a single robot attached to a bottom of the transfer chamber and adapted to pass substrates through the four first facets and the three second facets; and
- an interface unit comprising an integral unit body that comprises: a mating piece having three interface sides to attach to the three second facets; a second processing chamber having a first of the three interface sides; a load lock having a second of the three interface sides; and a third processing chamber having a third of the three interface sides.
10. The substrate processing system of claim 9, wherein the load lock is positioned in a middle of the interface unit between the second processing chamber and the third processing chamber.
11. The substrate processing system of claim 9, further comprising the one or more first processing chambers, wherein the one or more first processing chambers are epitaxial deposition chambers, and the second processing chamber and the third processing chamber are smaller than each of the one or more first processing chambers.
12. The substrate processing system of claim 9, wherein the load lock is one of a single, a batch, or a stacked load lock.
13. The substrate processing system of claim 9, further comprising a factory interface attached to the load lock.
14. The substrate processing system of claim 13, wherein the factory interface is laterally offset from a geometrical center of the transfer chamber.
15. The substrate processing system of claim 9, wherein the robot comprises two arms, each attached to a separate end effector.
16. The substrate processing system of claim 9, wherein the second processing chamber is a pre-processing chamber and the third processing chamber is a post-processing chamber.
17. A mainframe for a semiconductor manufacturing device comprising:
- a transfer chamber comprising: a bottom; four first facets attached to the bottom, wherein each of the first four facets is adapted for attachment to a first processing chamber; two second facets attached to the bottom, wherein each of the two second facets has a width that is narrower than that of each of the four first facets and is adapted for attachment to a second processing chamber that is smaller than the first processing chamber; a single third facet attached to the bottom, wherein the single third facet is adapted for attachment to a load lock; and a robot attached to the bottom, the robot adapted to transfer substrates to and from each first processing chamber, each second processing chamber, and the load lock.
18. The mainframe of claim 17, wherein the single third facet is positioned between the two second facets and also has a width that is narrower than that of each of the four first facets.
19. The mainframe of claim 17, wherein the load lock is one of a single, a batch, or a stacked load lock.
20. The mainframe of claim 17, wherein the robot comprises two arms, each attached to a separate end effector, and wherein the two second facets each comprise an opening through which to insert and withdraw one of the two arms of the robot.
21. The mainframe of claim 17, wherein the single third facet comprises slit openings through which to insert the substrates to and from the load lock.
Type: Application
Filed: Jan 22, 2021
Publication Date: May 13, 2021
Inventors: Michael Robert Rice (Pleasanton, CA), Michael Meyers (San Jose, CA), John J. Mazzocco (San Jose, CA), Dean C. Hruzek (Cedar Park, TX), Michael Kuchar (Georgetown, TX), Sushant S. Koshti (Sunnyvale, CA), Penchala N. Kankanala (San Ramon, CA), Eric A. Englhardt (Palo Alto, CA)
Application Number: 17/248,395