CN218730853U

CN218730853U - Bearing device and semiconductor chamber

Info

Publication number: CN218730853U
Application number: CN202222651140.8U
Authority: CN
Inventors: 范天庆; 姚明可
Original assignee: Beijing Naura Microelectronics Equipment Co Ltd
Current assignee: Beijing Naura Microelectronics Equipment Co Ltd
Priority date: 2022-10-09
Filing date: 2022-10-09
Publication date: 2023-03-24
Anticipated expiration: 2032-10-09

Abstract

The application relates to a bearing device and a semiconductor chamber. The bearing device is used for bearing wafers in a semiconductor cavity and comprises a base body, a plurality of thimbles and at least two support sheets: a plurality of thimble limiting holes correspondingly matched with the thimbles are formed in the base body; the thimble is arranged in the thimble limiting hole, and the base body can perform lifting motion relative to the thimble; the direction of taking and placing the wafer is taken as an axis, the at least two supporting sheets are arranged on two sides of the axis and are supported by the plurality of thimbles, and when the base body rises relative to the thimbles until the plurality of thimbles are all accommodated in the thimble limiting holes, the upper surfaces of the at least two supporting sheets and the upper surface of the base body are all on the same plane. The contact area of the supporting sheet and the wafer in the application is far larger than that of the thimble and the wafer in the prior art, so that the wafer is stressed more uniformly when the base is separated from the wafer, and the phenomenon of fragments can be obviously reduced.

Description

Bearing device and semiconductor chamber

Technical Field

The present application relates to the field of semiconductor technology, and more particularly, to a carrier device and a semiconductor chamber.

Background

Semiconductor processing is performed in a process chamber, and a susceptor in the process chamber serves to support a wafer for processing. Currently, the mainstream semiconductor equipment is fully automatic when wafer transmission is performed, and a manipulator is used for transmitting the wafer to a process chamber.

In the prior art, a wafer bearing mode adopted by a semiconductor process chamber is mainly a mode of lifting a base and a thimble. As shown in fig. 1 and 2, fig. 1 is a top view of a base 101; fig. 2 is a side view of a semiconductor wafer carrier. The thimble 103 is disposed in the thimble-limiting hole 102 of the base 101. As shown in the figure, in the mainstream prior art, three pins 103 arranged in a triangle are used to carry the wafer. For the convenience of observation, the relevant details of the three ejector pins 103 are all shown in fig. 2, but are not drawn in a completely blocking relationship.

When a wafer is to be transferred into the process chamber, the pedestal 101 may be lowered to a wafer transfer position in which the pins 103 protrude above the upper surface of the pedestal (as shown in FIG. 2), such that the robot can smoothly transfer the wafer into the chamber and place the wafer on the pins 103. After the wafer transferring is completed, the mechanical arm is withdrawn from the cavity, the base is lifted to the process position, at the moment, the thimble 103 falls back into the thimble limiting hole 102, the wafer is tightly attached to the base 101, and the process is started.

After the process is finished, the base 101 is lowered to the wafer transferring position again, the wafer is separated from the base 101 and is carried by the thimble 103, and the manipulator extends into the process chamber to lift the wafer from below and take it out for the next process.

Multiple lifting operations of the susceptor 101 will be involved during wafer transfer. For some processes, after the process is finished, charge accumulation occurs between the base 101 and the wafer, which results in an increase in adhesion between the base 101 and the wafer, and if the base 101 is lowered at an inappropriate speed (e.g., too fast) during the process of lowering the base 101 and separating the base 101 from the wafer, the wafer may be broken due to too tight adhesion between the base 101 and the wafer supported by the pins 103.

SUMMERY OF THE UTILITY MODEL

The present application is directed to a semiconductor wafer carrier device, which can significantly reduce the occurrence of chipping caused by the separation of a susceptor and a wafer due to the large adhesion between the susceptor and the wafer. The present application also provides phase semiconductor processing equipment.

According to an aspect of the present application, there is provided a carrier apparatus for carrying a wafer in a semiconductor chamber, the carrier apparatus including a base body, a plurality of lift pins, and at least two support pieces:

a plurality of thimble limiting holes correspondingly matched with the thimbles are formed in the base body;

the ejector pin is arranged in the ejector pin limiting hole, and the base body can perform lifting motion relative to the ejector pin;

the wafer picking and placing direction is taken as an axis, the at least two supporting sheets are arranged on two sides of the axis and are supported by the plurality of thimbles, and when the base body rises relative to the thimbles until the plurality of thimbles are contained in the thimble limiting holes, the upper surfaces of the at least two supporting sheets and the upper surface of the base body are positioned on the same plane.

In some embodiments, the at least two support tabs are symmetrically disposed with respect to the axis.

In some embodiments, a thimble limiting groove is formed in the lower surface of each support piece, and an end of the thimble is embedded in the thimble limiting groove to limit the relative position of the thimble and the support piece.

In some embodiments, a supporting sheet limiting groove matched with the supporting sheet is formed in the upper surface of the base body, when the base body rises relative to the ejector pins until the plurality of ejector pins are accommodated in the ejector pin limiting holes, the supporting sheet falls into the supporting sheet limiting groove, and the ejector pin limiting holes are formed in the bottom of the supporting sheet limiting groove.

In some embodiments, the thimble includes a thimble body and an inverted conical portion, the thimble limiting hole includes an inverted conical hole and a vertical hole, and when the base body rises relative to the thimble until the plurality of thimbles are all accommodated in the thimble limiting hole, an upper surface of the inverted conical portion and a groove bottom of the support piece limiting groove are on the same plane.

In some embodiments, the support sheet is made of the same material as the base body.

In some embodiments, the support plates are semi-annular and the number of support plates is two.

In some embodiments, the number of the thimbles supporting each supporting sheet is at least 2, and the thimbles are uniformly distributed below the supporting sheet.

In some embodiments, the plurality of pins are symmetrically disposed on both sides of the shaft.

According to another aspect of the present application, there is also provided a semiconductor chamber, in which the carrying device as described above is disposed.

The application discloses add the structure of backing sheet at thimble top, because the area of contact of backing sheet and wafer is greater than the area of contact of thimble and wafer among the prior art far away, consequently, enable the wafer atress more even when base and wafer separation, can show the reduction piece phenomenon.

Drawings

The foregoing and other objects, features and advantages of the application will be apparent from the following more particular descriptions of exemplary embodiments of the application, as illustrated in the accompanying drawings wherein like reference numbers generally represent like parts throughout the exemplary embodiments of the application.

Fig. 1 shows a top view of a base according to a prior art.

Figure 2 shows a side view of a semiconductor wafer carrier device according to the prior art.

FIG. 3 illustrates a top view of a base according to an exemplary embodiment of the present application.

Figure 4 shows a side view schematic of a semiconductor wafer carrier device according to one illustrative embodiment of the present application.

Description of the reference numerals

101, a base; 102, a thimble limiting hole; 103, a thimble;

301, a base; 302, a thimble limiting hole; 303, a thimble; 304, a support sheet; 305; a support sheet limiting groove; 306, a thimble limit groove.

Detailed Description

The present application will be described in more detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings. While the preferred embodiments of the present application are shown in the drawings, it should be understood that the present application may be embodied in various forms and should not be limited to the embodiments set forth herein. Rather, these embodiments are provided so that this disclosure will be thorough and complete, and will fully convey the scope of the disclosure to those skilled in the art.

The application provides a bearing device, which is used for bearing a wafer in a semiconductor cavity and comprises a base body, a plurality of thimbles and at least two supporting sheets. A plurality of thimble limiting holes correspondingly matched with the plurality of thimbles are formed in the base body. The thimble sets up in the spacing hole of thimble, and the relative thimble of base body can carry out elevating movement. The direction of taking and placing the wafer is taken as an axis, the at least two supporting sheets are arranged on two sides of the axis and are supported by the ejector pins, and when the base body rises relative to the ejector pins until the ejector pins are accommodated in the ejector pin limiting holes, the upper surfaces of the at least two supporting sheets and the upper surface of the base body are located on the same plane.

According to the semiconductor wafer bearing device, the supporting sheet is additionally arranged above the thimble, and the contact area of the supporting sheet and the wafer is far larger than that of the thimble and the wafer in the prior art, so that the wafer can be stressed more uniformly when the base body is separated from the wafer, and the wafer is prevented from being broken.

The thimble can be the same with the shape of thimble spacing hole, and when the thimble holding was in the thimble spacing hole promptly, the side surface that thimble and thimble spacing hole contacted each other was laminated completely, and the upper surface of thimble and do not set up thimble spacing hole department and be in the coplanar.

In some possible embodiments, the direction of taking and placing the wafer is taken as an axis, and the at least two support plates are symmetrically arranged relative to the axis. The support sheet is arranged symmetrically relative to the axis, so that more stable support can be provided for the wafer.

In some possible embodiments, the support plates are semi-annular, and the number of the support plates is two. In the embodiment, the two semi-annular support sheets symmetrically distributed on two sides of the shaft provide stable support for the wafer. The two symmetrical semi-annular supporting pieces are beneficial to uniform bearing pressure, provide a bearing area as large as possible, and can be far away from the center shaft area of the base body, so that the operation of picking and placing wafers by a manipulator is not interfered.

In other embodiments, the support plate may also be one-third annular, one-fourth annular, etc. These shapes are all within the scope of the present application.

In some possible embodiments, the number of the thimbles supporting each supporting sheet is at least 2, and the thimbles are uniformly distributed below the supporting sheet. The two thimbles can support the supporting sheet more stably. As will be appreciated by those skilled in the art, increasing the number of evenly distributed pins provides a more stable support for the support plate.

In some possible embodiments, the number of the thimbles supporting each supporting sheet is at least 4. The frequent lift of base can lead to the relative position between thimble and the base to take place the skew, just easily rolls over the thimble when going up and down again, rolls over the thimble in the prior art and turns over respectively and will lead to the wafer gleitbretter broken. According to the embodiment, when one supporting sheet is supported by more than 4 ejector pins which are uniformly distributed, even if 1 ejector pin is broken, other ejector pins can still support the supporting sheet, so that the supporting sheet is not seriously inclined, and the wafer is prevented from falling off and being broken into pieces, therefore, when the number of the ejector pins supporting each supporting sheet is more than 4, the supporting reliability can be further improved, and the breakage accidents are remarkably reduced.

In some possible embodiments, the direction of taking and placing the wafer is taken as an axis, and the plurality of ejector pins are symmetrically arranged on two sides of the axis. The symmetrically arranged thimbles can provide more stable and balanced supporting force for the supporting sheets on the two sides of the shaft, and further provide stable and balanced support for the wafer.

In some possible embodiments, the lower surface of each supporting sheet is provided with a thimble limiting groove, and the end of the thimble is embedded in the thimble limiting groove to limit the relative position of the thimble and the supporting sheet. According to the embodiment, the dislocation phenomenon between the thimble and the supporting sheet in the lifting process of the base can be further reduced.

In some possible embodiments, the upper surface of the base body is provided with a supporting sheet limiting groove matched with the supporting sheet, when the base body ascends relative to the ejector pins until the plurality of ejector pins are all accommodated in the ejector pin limiting holes, the supporting sheet falls into the supporting sheet limiting groove, and the ejector pin limiting holes are arranged at the bottom of the supporting sheet limiting groove. Therefore, when the base body is positioned at the process position, the base and the wafer can be tightly attached, and the process effect is improved.

In some possible embodiments, the thimble includes thimble body and back taper portion, and the spacing hole of thimble includes back taper hole and vertical hole, and when relative thimble of base body rises to a plurality of thimbles and all holds in the spacing hole of thimble, the upper surface of back taper portion and the tank bottom of backing sheet spacing groove are on the coplanar. The thimble structure according to the embodiment can provide more stable support for the support sheet.

In some possible embodiments, the support sheet is made of the same material as the base body. When the wafer needs to be heated in the process, the wafer can be heated more uniformly by the same material, so that the process effect is improved.

In some possible embodiments, the thimble is made of ceramic. When the base and the ejector pins are staggered and collide, compared with alloy ejector pins, the ceramic ejector pins are easier to break, the effect of protecting the base is achieved, and the base is prevented from being damaged more.

FIG. 3 illustrates a top view of a base according to an exemplary embodiment of the present application. Figure 4 shows a side view schematic of a semiconductor wafer carrier device according to one illustrative embodiment of the present application. Fig. 4 is a side view of the wafer picking and placing direction, in order to show the relevant details more clearly, fig. 4 is not drawn completely in a shielding relationship, but shows the relevant details of the thimble and the supporting piece on one side of the shaft as much as possible.

The base 301 has a plurality of pin-retaining holes 302 and two semi-annular support piece-retaining grooves 305. The susceptor 301 functions as a lower electrode for the portion of the process requiring rf generation, as well as supporting and heating the wafer during the process, and the susceptor 301 also functions as a lower electrode.

The thimble stopper hole 302 is provided in the base 301 and vertically penetrates the base 301. The cross section of the rod part of the thimble limiting hole 302 is slightly larger than that of the thimble 303, so that on one hand, the relative positions of the thimble 303 and the base 301 in the horizontal direction are limited, and horizontal dislocation is reduced as much as possible; on one hand, the thimble 303 and the base 301 can be ensured to move relatively in the up-down direction.

The head of the thimble 303 is inserted into a thimble-defining groove 306 on the lower surface of the support piece 304 to support the support piece 304 and define the relative position of the thimble 303 and the support piece 304. The thimble 303 passes through the thimble limiting hole 302, and the length thereof is greater than the thickness of the base 301.

The thimble 303 is made of ceramic. When the thimble 303 collides with the base 301, the thimble 303 is ensured to be fragile, so that the base 301 is prevented from being impacted by a large force.

Two semi-annular supporting pieces 304 with symmetrical shapes are symmetrically distributed on two sides of the shaft by taking the direction of a manipulator for picking and placing the wafer as the shaft. Each support plate 304 is supported by 4 pins 303, and the 4 pins 303 are uniformly distributed below the support plate 304. It will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that the support plates 304 on both sides of the shaft are spaced apart from each other by a distance sufficient to facilitate wafer handling by a robot, and that the distance between the support plates 304 should not be too wide to ensure that wafers can be placed on the support plates 304 on both sides of the shaft.

The supporting piece limiting groove 306 on the base 301 is matched with the supporting piece 304, and when the base 301 is in the process position, the supporting piece 304 falls into the supporting piece limiting groove 306, so that the whole surface of the base is a plane and commonly bears the wafer.

The support piece 304 is made of the same material as the base 301. When the wafer is heated in the process, the whole supporting surface of the wafer is made of the same material, so that the wafer is heated more uniformly, and the process effect is improved.

The application also provides a semiconductor chamber, wherein the bearing device is arranged in the semiconductor chamber.

In the bearing device comprising the base body, the thimble and the supporting sheet, the contact area between the supporting sheet and the wafer is far larger than that between the thimble and the wafer in the prior art, so that the stress of the wafer is more uniform when the base is separated from the wafer, and the phenomenon of fragments can be obviously reduced. In some embodiments of the present application, still can provide stable support for the wafer when the broken condition of single thimble appears, avoid the wafer gleitbretter broken.

Having described embodiments of the present application, the foregoing description is intended to be exemplary, not exhaustive, and not limited to the disclosed embodiments. Many modifications and variations will be apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art without departing from the scope and spirit of the described embodiments.

Claims

1. A bearing device is used for bearing a wafer in a semiconductor cavity, and is characterized by comprising a base body, a plurality of thimbles and at least two support sheets:

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein:

the at least two support plates are symmetrically disposed with respect to the axis.

3. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein:

the lower surface of each supporting sheet is provided with a thimble limiting groove, and the end part of the thimble is embedded into the thimble limiting groove so as to limit the relative position of the thimble and the supporting sheet.

4. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein:

the upper surface of the base body is provided with a supporting sheet limiting groove matched with the supporting sheet, when the base body is lifted relative to the ejector pins until the ejector pins are accommodated in the ejector pin limiting holes, the supporting sheet falls into the supporting sheet limiting groove, and the ejector pin limiting holes are formed in the bottom of the supporting sheet limiting groove.

5. The apparatus of claim 4, wherein:

the thimble comprises a thimble body and an inverted conical part, the thimble limiting hole comprises an inverted conical hole and a vertical hole, and when the base body is lifted relative to the thimble to a plurality of thimbles which are all accommodated in the thimble limiting hole, the upper surface of the inverted conical part and the groove bottom of the support piece limiting groove are on the same plane.

6. The device of claim 1, wherein the support sheet is made of the same material as the base body.

7. The device of claim 1, wherein the support plates are semi-annular and the number of support plates is two.

8. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein:

the quantity of the thimbles supporting each supporting sheet is at least 2, and the thimbles are uniformly distributed below the supporting sheets.

9. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein:

the plurality of thimbles are symmetrically arranged on two sides of the shaft.

10. A semiconductor chamber, wherein the carrying device as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 9 is disposed in the semiconductor chamber.