Modular Flow Cell and Adjustment System
A combinatorial processing system having modular dispense heads is provided. The modular dispense heads are disposed on a rail system enabling an adjustable pitch of the modular dispense heads for the combinatorial processing. The modular dispense heads are configured so that sections of the modular dispense heads are detachable in order to accommodate various processes through a first section without having to completely disconnect and re-connect facilities to a second section.
This is a Continuation application of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/333,226, filed on Dec. 11, 2008, which claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 61/013,038, filed Dec. 12, 2007, each of which is incorporated by reference in its entirety for all purposes.
BACKGROUNDCombinatorial processing enables rapid evaluation of semiconductor processes. The systems supporting the combinatorial processing are flexible to accommodate the demands for running the different processes either in parallel, serial or some combination of the two.
Some exemplary semiconductor wet processing operations include operations for adding (electro-depositions) and removing layers (etch), defining features, preparing layers (e.g., cleans), etc. Similar processing techniques apply to the manufacture of integrated circuits (IC) semiconductor devices, flat panel displays, optoelectronics devices, data storage devices, magneto electronic devices, magneto optic devices, packaged devices, and the like. As feature sizes continue to shrink, improvements, whether in materials, unit processes, or process sequences, are continually being sought for the deposition processes. However, semiconductor companies conduct R&D on full wafer processing through the use of split lots, as the deposition systems are designed to support this processing scheme. This approach has resulted in ever escalating R&D costs and the inability to conduct extensive experimentation in a timely and cost effective manner. Combinatorial processing as applied to semiconductor manufacturing operations enables multiple experiments to be performed on a single substrate.
An improved technique for accommodating gathering of additional data for multiple process variations on a single substrate is provided to enhance the evaluation of different materials, unit processes, or process sequences.
The present invention will be readily understood by the following detailed description in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, and like reference numerals designate like structural elements.
The embodiments described herein provide a method and apparatus for a modular combinatorial processing head enabling efficient reconfiguration of a site isolated reactor. It will be obvious, however, to one skilled in the art, that the present invention may be practiced without some or all of these specific details. In other instances, well known process operations have not been described in detail in order not to unnecessarily obscure the present invention.
The embodiments described below provide site isolated reactors having configurable dispense heads for combinatorial processing. With the modular design described herein, the process of changing the hydrodynamic, agitation, or any other characteristics of an individual reactor in a site isolated multi-channel reactor is simplified. In order to simplify the design, a modular configuration for a reactor insert is described in more detail below. Also described herein is a system for adjusting the spacing of the reactors and flow cells to accommodate different substrates, die configurations, test structure locations, etc. This adjustment system can be used with the modular flow cell mentioned above or a monolithic block design in which both the reactor and the facilities interface are combined into one integral unit. As will be discussed in further detail below, separating the facilities functionality from the reactor configuration enables a more efficient changeover between or during experiments or process sequences.
The modularization of the reactor is achieved by grouping the common facilities requirements in one portion (a “facilities module”) and enabling a second portion (a “process module”) to be interchanged depending on the experiment or characteristics needed. Common facility requirements include providing inlet ports for a chemical solution and outlet ports for removing waste from the reaction vessel, the valving and bypasses necessary to achieve desired flow combinations, providing electrical connections for valves, as well as applying a potential inside the reactor cell, and/or drive mechanisms, for providing rotation for agitation, scrubbing, brushing, etc. A pressure based feed through may enable agitation or scrubbing in one embodiment, and an electrical feed through may be desired to provide a bias internal to the reaction chamber, e.g., for electroplating experiments. Integrating these features on a single block that incorporates a standardized interface to a second module that dictates the flow, agitation, and other characteristics within the reaction chamber provides a much more efficient design. Thus, when different characteristics or capabilities are required, process changes are achieved by replacing the process module, which is removably mated to the facilities module.
The embodiments described below further provide details for a multi-region processing system and associated processing heads that enable processing a substrate in a combinatorial fashion. Thus, different regions of the substrate may have different properties, which may be due to variations of the materials, unit processes (e.g., processing conditions or parameters) and process sequences, etc. For some embodiments, within each region the conditions are preferably substantially uniform so as to mimic conventional full wafer processing within each region. However, useful results can be obtained for certain experiments without this requirement. In one embodiment, the different regions are isolated so that there is no inter-diffusion between the different regions.
In addition, the combinatorial processing of the substrate may be combined with conventional processing techniques where substantially the entire substrate is uniformly processed (e.g., subjected to the same materials, unit processes and process sequences). Thus, the embodiments described herein can pull a substrate from a manufacturing process flow, perform combinatorial processing and return the substrate to the manufacturing process flow for further processing. Alternatively, the substrate can be processed in an integrated tool that allows both combinatorial and conventional processing in various chambers attached around a central chamber or within a R&D facility such as a clean room. Consequently, in one substrate, information concerning the varied processes and the interaction of the varied processes with conventional processes can be evaluated. Accordingly, a multitude of data is available from a single substrate for a desired process.
The embodiments described herein enable the application of combinatorial techniques for process sequence integration of semiconductor manufacturing operations. Combinatorial processing applied to semiconductor manufacturing operations assists in arriving at a globally optimal sequence of semiconductor manufacturing operations by considering interaction effects between the unit manufacturing operations, the process sequence of the unit manufacturing operations, the process conditions used to effect such unit manufacturing operations, as well as materials characteristics of components utilized within the unit manufacturing operations. The embodiments described below provide details for a multi-region processing system and associated reaction chambers that enable processing a substrate in a combinatorial fashion. In one embodiment, the different regions are isolated (e.g., ‘site-isolated’) so that there is no interdiffusion between the different regions.
The embodiments are capable of analyzing a portion or subset of the overall process sequence used to manufacture semiconductor devices. Once the subset of the process sequence is identified for analysis, combinatorial process sequence integration testing is performed to optimize the materials, unit processes, and process sequences used to build that portion of the device or structure. According to some embodiments described herein, the processing may take place over structures formed on the semiconductor substrate, which are equivalent to the structures formed during actual production of the semiconductor device. For example, structures may include, but not be limited to, trenches, vias, interconnect lines, capping layers, masking layers, diodes, memory elements, gate stacks, transistors, or any other series of layers or unit processes that create a structure found on semiconductor chips.
In some embodiments, while the combinatorial processing varies certain materials, unit processes, or process sequences, the composition or thickness of the layers or structures, or the action of the unit process is substantially uniform for each region. It should be noted that the process can be varied between regions, for example, a thickness of a layer is varied or one of various process parameters or conditions, such as a voltage, flow rate, etc., may be varied between regions, as desired by the design of the experiment. The result is a series of regions on the substrate that contains structures or unit process sequences that have been uniformly applied within that region and, as applicable, across different regions. This process uniformity allows comparison of the properties within and across the different regions such that variations and test results are due to the parameter being modified, e.g., materials, unit processes, unit process parameters, or process sequences, and not the lack of process uniformity. In essence, the combinatorial processing performs semiconductor manufacturing operations on multiple regions of a substrate so that the multiple regions are processed differently to achieve different results.
One skilled in the art will appreciate that the system of
In one embodiment, valves 104a through 104d of
Within a lower portion of facilities module 120, slot 150 is defined thereon in order to accommodate a rail so that a plurality of the flow cells 102 may be combined as described with regards to
In
In one embodiment, sleeve 160 may be formed from polytetrafluoroethylene, while enclosure 161 may be formed from any suitable material capable of supporting sleeve 160 and withstanding the movement along the rails. O-ring 162 may be composed of any chemically inert material compatible with the fluids used for processing and is capable of deformation to form a seal with a surface.
In addition to flow modes where the fluids are continuously dispensed into the reactor and continuously removed from the reactor (i.e. flowed through the reactor and across the region), the flow cell may support a bucket mode. In the bucket mode fluids are dispensed into a reactor, allowed to react with the region of the substrate for a desired amount of time, and are evacuated from the reactor after the operation is complete. As an example, in bucket mode processing, the fluids may be separated from the bottom of the flow cell head by a gap (e.g., 5-10 mm) that is larger than a gap for the flow mode.
In the manner described above, flow cells 102 may be moved in one linear direction as they are slideably mounted on rails 170 of one rail system and the corresponding rows to which each flow cell belongs is slideably mounted on rails 180 of a second rail system. Thus, the movement of the rows along rails 180 is in a linear direction substantially perpendicular to the direction of movement along rails 170, enabling access to the entire surface of a substrate disposed thereunder. In this embodiment, the first row of flow cells includes three flow cells while the next row includes five and the row thereafter includes six. This pattern is repeated for the next three rows so that a total of 28 flow cells are accommodated in this configuration. For example, a 12-inch wafer having the 28 regions could be accommodated in this design. Of course, this design is not meant to be limiting as the size and shape of the flow cells or the size and shape of the substrate to be processed may be any suitable geometric shape. Those dimensions and characteristics will inform the specific default configuration of the flow cells and their positioning for any specific process. Since each flow cell is modularly designed a number of different experiments may be provided with the 28 corresponding flow cells. In addition, certain flow cells may be set aside or parked outside the area of the substrate to be processed as rails 170 and 180 are configured to enable enough space to accommodate one or more flow cells 102 outside of the substrate boundary region. For example, one whole row of flow cells 102 may be moved along rails 180 outside of the substrate boundary region. Thus, through the slidable mounting and rail configuration any pitch for any substrate may be accommodated with this design. It should be noted that the monolithic flow cells of
It should be appreciated that the embodiments described herein accommodate a multi-channel site-isolated reactor having independent or modular process modules that can be easily changed. In the embodiments described above, one module contains the necessary connections for the facilities connections to the reactor and a separate module dictates the flow dynamics and overall reactor characteristics.
Any of the operations described herein that form part of the invention are useful machine operations. The invention also relates to a device or an apparatus for performing these operations. The apparatus can be specially constructed for the required purpose, or the apparatus can be a general-purpose computer selectively activated or configured by a computer program stored in the computer. In particular, various general-purpose machines can be used with computer programs written in accordance with the teachings herein, or it may be more convenient to construct a more specialized apparatus to perform the required operations.
Although the foregoing invention has been described in some detail for purposes of clarity of understanding, it will be apparent that certain changes and modifications can be practiced within the scope of the appended claims. Accordingly, the present embodiments are to be considered as illustrative and not restrictive, and the invention is not to be limited to the details given herein, but may be modified within the scope and equivalents of the appended claims. In the claims, elements and/or steps do not imply any particular order of operation, unless explicitly stated in the claims.
Claims
1. A combinatorial processing system, comprising:
- a reaction chamber configured to define a site-isolated region on a surface of a substrate;
- a first dispense head section comprising at least one first channel extending therethrough and at least one valve in fluid communication with the at least one first channel, wherein the first dispense head section is configured to be coupled to at least one processing fluid supply such that the at least one first channel is in fluid communication with the at least one processing fluid supply through the at least one valve; and
- a plurality of second dispense head sections, wherein each of the plurality of second dispense head sections comprises at least one second channel extending therethrough and is configured to be partially inserted into the reaction chamber and detachably coupled to the first dispense head section such that the at least one second channel is in fluid communication with the at least one first channel, and wherein each of the plurality of second dispense head sections is configured to perform a process on the site-isolated region using processing fluid from the at least one processing fluid supply different than the others of the plurality of second sections.
2. The combinatorial processing system of claim 1, wherein the first dispense head section comprises a plurality of first channels extending therethrough and a plurality of valves, each of the plurality of valves being in fluid communication with a respective one of the plurality of first channels.
3. The combinatorial processing system of claim 2, wherein the at least one second channel of a first of the plurality of second dispense head sections is configured to deliver processing fluid flowing through the plurality of first channels into the reaction chamber along a first flow path, and the at least one second channel of a second of the plurality of second dispense head sections is configured to deliver processing fluid flowing through the plurality of first channels into the reaction chamber along a second flow path, the second flow path being different than the first flow path.
4. The combinatorial processing system of claim 2, wherein the at least one second channel of a first of the plurality of second dispense head sections is configured to deliver processing fluid flowing through the plurality of first channels into the reaction chamber along a plurality of flow paths, and the at least one second channel of a second of the plurality of second dispense head sections is configured to deliver processing fluid flowing through the plurality of first channels into the reaction chamber along a single flow path.
5. The combinatorial processing system of claim 2, wherein the at least one second channel of a first of the plurality of second dispense head sections is configured to deliver processing fluid flowing through the plurality of first channels into the reaction chamber such that the processing fluid flows radially across the site-isolated region.
6. The combinatorial processing system of claim 3, wherein the at least one second channel of a second of the plurality of second dispense head sections is configured to deliver processing fluid flowing through the plurality of first channels into the reaction chamber such that the processing fluid flows from a first side of the site-isolated region to a second side of the site-isolated region.
7. The combinatorial processing system of claim 1, wherein at least one of the plurality of second dispense head sections further comprises a stirrer configured to stir processing fluid on the site-isolated region within the reaction chamber.
8. The combinatorial processing system of claim 7, wherein the first dispense head section further comprises a drive mechanism, wherein the drive mechanism is coupled to the stirrer when the first dispense head section is coupled to the at least one of the plurality of second dispense head sections, the drive mechanism being configured to cause movement of the stirrer.
9. The combinatorial processing system of claim 1, wherein at least one of the plurality of second dispense head sections further comprises a disc configured to scrub or clean the site-isolated region.
10. The combinatorial processing system of claim 1, wherein at least one of the plurality of second dispense head sections further comprises one or more electrodes or a measurement device.
11. A combinatorial processing system, comprising:
- a reaction chamber configured to define a site-isolated region on a surface of a substrate;
- a first dispense head section comprising at least one first channel extending therethrough, at least one valve in fluid communication with the at least one first channel, and a drive mechanism, wherein the first dispense head section is configured to be coupled to at least one processing fluid supply such that the at least one first channel is in fluid communication with the at least one processing fluid supply through the at least one valve; and
- a plurality of second dispense head sections, wherein each of the plurality of second dispense head sections comprises at least one second channel extending therethrough and is configured to be partially inserted into the reaction chamber and detachably coupled to the first dispense head section such that the at least one second channel is in fluid communication with the at least one first channel, and wherein each of the plurality of second dispense head sections is configured to perform a process on the site-isolated region using processing fluid from the at least one processing fluid supply different than the others of the plurality of second sections
- wherein each of some of the plurality of second dispense head sections further comprises a movable component positioned within the reaction chamber and coupled to the drive mechanism when the respective ones of the plurality of second dispense head sections are coupled to the first dispense head section, and wherein the drive mechanism is configured to cause movement of the movable component.
12. The combinatorial processing system of claim 11, wherein the first dispense head section comprises a plurality of first channels extending therethrough and a plurality of valves, each of the plurality of valves being in fluid communication with a respective one of the plurality of first channels.
13. The combinatorial processing system of claim 12, wherein the at least one second channel of a first of the plurality of second dispense head sections is configured to deliver processing fluid flowing through the plurality of first channels into the reaction chamber along a first flow path, and the at least one second channel of a second of the plurality of second dispense head sections is configured to deliver processing fluid flowing through the plurality of first channels into the reaction chamber along a second flow path, the second flow path being different than the first flow path.
14. The combinatorial processing system of claim 12, wherein the at least one second channel of a first of the plurality of second dispense head sections is configured to deliver processing fluid flowing through the plurality of first channels into the reaction chamber along a plurality of flow paths, and the at least one second channel of a second of the plurality of second dispense head sections is configured to deliver processing fluid flowing through the plurality of first channels into the reaction chamber along a single flow path.
15. The combinatorial processing system of claim 14, wherein the movable components comprise a stirrer or a disc.
16. A combinatorial processing system, comprising: a reaction chamber configured to define a respective one of a plurality of site-isolated region on a surface of the substrate; and a dispense head partially inserted into the reaction chamber and comprising: a first section comprising at least one first channel extending therethrough and at least one valve in fluid communication with the at least one first channel, wherein the first section is configured to be coupled to at least one processing fluid supply such that the at least one first channel is in fluid communication with the at least one processing fluid supply through the at least one valve; and a second section comprising at least one second channel extending therethrough and being detachably coupled to the first section such that the at least one second channel is in fluid communication with the at least one first channel,
- a substrate support configured to support a substrate;
- at least one rail positioned above the substrate support; and
- a plurality of flow cells slideably mounted to the at least one rail, wherein each of the plurality of flow cells comprises:
- wherein the second sections of the dispense heads of the plurality of flow cells are configured such that a process performed on each of the plurality of site-isolated regions using processing fluid from the at least one processing fluid supply is different than the processes performed on the others of the plurality of site-isolated regions.
17. The combinatorial processing system of claim 16, wherein the at least one rail comprises a first rail and at least one second rail, wherein the at least one second rail is slideably mounted to the first rail.
18. The combinatorial processing system of claim 17, wherein the plurality of flow cells are slideably mounted to the at least one second rail.
19. The combinatorial processing system of claim 18, wherein the at least one second rail is orthogonal to the first rail.
20. The combinatorial processing system of claim 16, wherein the first section of the dispense head of at least some of the plurality of flow cells comprises a plurality of first channels extending therethrough and a plurality of valves, each of the plurality of valves being in fluid communication with a respective one of the plurality of first channels.
Type: Application
Filed: May 1, 2015
Publication Date: Aug 20, 2015
Inventors: Kurt Weiner (San Jose, CA), Aaron Francis (San Jose, CA), Ken Williams (Livermore, CA)
Application Number: 14/701,861