JPS61131532A - Heat treatment device for sheet-like material - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To perform a uniform heat treatment as well as to contrive improvement in the efficiency of heat treatment by a method wherein an endless belt, having a work conveying function, maintains the work in the state wherein its lower surface comes in contact with a heating plate or in the state approximate to contact, and hot air is blown against the work from above. CONSTITUTION:The work 2, whereon an etching process is finished in an etching chamber 4, is sent to a load lock chamber 5, the work 2 which is brought into an N2 gas chamber 6 is guided into a case 8 from the inserting hole 9 of a heat treatment device 7, and it is conveyed to the upper surface of the endless belt 13 located in the case 8. Then, the work 2 is moved to the endless belt 13 toward a pick-up hole 10. In the meantime, the work 2 is heated up from the lower side of the belt 13 by a heating plate 16, and at the same time, hot air is blown out from the upper surface of the belt, and also hot air blows out from a pipe 19. As a result, the substance grown by chlorine gas is removed and exhausted from an exhaust hole 22. Besides, after heat treatment is performed, the following works are successively conveyed by rotating the endless belt 13 after a heat treatment, and a heat treatment operation is performed continuously.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Technical Field of the Invention] The present invention relates to a heat treatment apparatus for thin sheets and strips of silicon wafers, and more particularly to a heat treatment apparatus suitable for use in heat treatment after dry etching.

[Technical background of the invention and its problems]

Conventionally, in etching equipment that performs etching using chlorine-based gas, when a workpiece is taken out from the equipment after etching, chlorine-based substances such as AlCl on the workpiece are removed.
3 reacts with oxygen in the atmosphere, causing corrosion.

Therefore, as a countermeasure for such cases, there is an apparatus in which the cassette is inserted into a cassette containing a large number of works in a case equipped with an electric furnace or an industrial dryer after the cutting process, and the cassette is then heat-treated.

That is, as shown in FIG. 4, a partition plate with multiple holes is provided in the case a to separate the upper and lower parts, and many works 6 stored in one cassette G are placed on the partition plate. This case a can be sealed with We, and the workpiece d is dried through the dry %=-f provided at the top of the case a, and the exhaust air is passed through the partition plate. It passes through the hole and is discharged from the exhaust hole q provided at the bottom of the case a.

However, according to the above-mentioned apparatus, heating of the workpiece is partially prevented by the cassette, so the heating time has to be longer to raise the temperature of the workpiece, and the temperature distribution is not uniform. There was also a drawback that the effects of post-treatment varied.

Furthermore, since the process is carried out for each cassette, a batch process is required, which has the disadvantage that it cannot be used in conjunction with an etching device.

(Objective of the Invention) In view of this, the present invention aims to shorten the heating time of a workpiece, make the temperature distribution uniform, provide a workpiece conveyance function, and exhibit continuous automatic processing ability when connected to an etching device. The purpose of this work is to provide an apparatus for heat treatment of sheet-like materials capable of overcoming the drawbacks of the prior art.

4 [Summary of the Invention] In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides a box-shaped case with a workpiece insertion port on one side and an output port on the opposite side at the same height. A transport member whose upper surface is aligned with the lower surfaces of the insertion port and the removal port is provided so that the workpiece inserted from the insertion port can be transported to the exit port, and above the transport member, the workpiece to be moved on the transport member is provided. The apparatus is characterized by a structure in which a hot air blowing part serving as a heating medium is disposed adjacent to the conveying member, and a heating plate for the workpiece is disposed downwardly adjacent to the conveying member so as to face each other.

5 (Embodiment of the Invention) The present invention will be described below with reference to an embodiment shown in FIGS. 1 to 3.

An example of the etching process in which etching is performed using chlorine-based gas is shown in FIG. The etching process is carried out one by one into the load rotter chamber 3, which is switched to a vacuum state, and then introduced into the vacuum etching chamber 4 for etching. When the pressure is switched from vacuum to atmospheric pressure again, it is sent to the next N2 gas chamber 6 to prevent oxidation, and then undergoes post-treatment such as washing with water or heating. It is now sent to the room.

The N2 gas chamber 6 is provided to prevent premature corrosion of the workpiece due to reaction with moisture in the air.

The heat treatment apparatus 7 for sheet-like materials according to the present invention is provided at the in-step in the case of the steps 1 and L, and is connected to the N2 gas chamber 6.

The box-shaped case 8 is provided with a workpiece insertion port 9 on the left side and a workpiece ejection port 10 on the right side at the same positions in the left and right direction in FIG. There is.

Inside the case 8, there are a pair of belt pulleys 12.12 that are pivotally supported via the machine frame 11.
A pair of endless belts 13.13 having a circular cross section are wound around the 2 at predetermined intervals in the width direction. The height is the same as the bottom surface of the insertion port 9.
The tray 2 inserted from the tray 2 is carried onto the endless belt 13, 13, and is transported in the direction of the outlet 10.

The belt 13.13 is rotated by the motor 14 via a drive mechanism (not shown).

A heating plate 16 is attached to the machine frame 11 via an insulator 15, and the heating plate 16 is wrapped around the machine frame 11. ? ! ! @Belt 13
．． Upper part of 13: Close to the back surface of the heating plate 16, and on the upper surface of the heating plate 16, a wire is attached to the endless belt 13, which is closer to the workpiece 2 on the endless belt 13, or closer to the workpiece 2, or closer to the workpiece 2 than the diameter of the endless belt 13. A pair of large widths of 17.17
is provided. This heating plate 16 is designed to heat the workpiece 2 from the bottom surface.

On the upper side opposite to the upper surface of the endless belt 13.13,
A hot air blowout til 19 as a heating medium is provided which is supported via another machine frame 18, and a heater 20 such as a nichrome wire is provided inside the tile 19. A blowout port 21 is provided at the bottom of the hot air blowout tube 19 in close proximity to the top surface of the workpiece 2, so that the hot air generated within the blowoff tube 19 is discharged from the blowout port 21. By blowing out the air, the workpiece 2 is heated from the upper surface.

The lower surface of the case 8 is provided with an exhaust port 22 that protrudes from the lower surface and comes into contact with the outside air.

Next, the effect will be explained.

In the etching process, the workpiece 2 that has been etched in the etching chamber 4 is sent to the load-lock chamber 5, and the workpiece 2 that has roughly entered the N2 gas chamber 6 from here is
It is introduced into the case 8 through the insertion port 9 of the heat treatment apparatus 7 of the present invention, and is carried onto the upper surface of the endless belt 13, 13 inside the case 8.

With this), the workpiece 2 is rotated by the endless belt 1 due to the rotation of the motor 14.
3.13 The upper part of the belt 13.13 is moved toward the outlet 10, but during this time it is heated by the heating plate 16 from the lower surface of the belt 13.13, and at the same time hot air is blown from the hot air blowing tube 19 from the upper surface. The products are removed using chlorine-based gas, and the exhaust is discharged through the exhaust port 22.
more excreted.

Further, after the heat treatment, by rotating the endless belts 13, 13, subsequent works are sequentially transferred, and the heat treatment work is performed continuously.

In addition, in this embodiment, the case where a pair of endless belts with a circular cross section is used is described, but the invention is not necessarily limited to this. It is also possible to have a flat plate shape with holes provided at appropriate intervals in the center in the longitudinal direction.

〔Effect of the invention〕

Since the present invention is configured as described above, the workpiece can be heated in a short time by holding the lower surface of the workpiece in contact with or close to contact with the heating plate and blowing hot air from the upper surface. As a result, heat treatment can be performed uniformly, eliminating the uneven temperature distribution that was a drawback of the conventional method, and since the workpiece can also be used in conjunction with an etching device, it is possible to continuously feed the workpieces one by one. This makes it possible to achieve superior effects such as significantly improving treatment efficiency compared to conventional treatments that are carried out all at once.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a front cross-sectional view showing an embodiment of the heat treatment apparatus for sheet-like materials according to the present invention, FIG. 2 is a side cross-sectional view of FIG. 1, and FIG. Explanatory diagram,
FIG. 4 is a perspective view of a conventional heat treatment apparatus. 1... Work case, 2... Work, 3... Load lock chamber, 4... Etching chamber, 5... Load lock chamber, 6... N2 gas, 7... Heat treatment equipment , 8
...Case, 9...Insertion port, 10...Ejection port, 1
3... Conveying member, 16... Heating plate, 21... Hot air blowing part. Applicant's agent Kiyoshi Inomata Figure 1 Figure 2 Figure 3 Atsushi Figure 4

Claims (1)

[Claims] A box-shaped case is provided with a workpiece insertion port on one side and a workpiece removal port on the opposite side at the same height position, and the upper surface is set at the same height so that the workpiece inserted from the insertion port can be transported to the exit. A conveyor member is provided that is aligned with the lower surface of the opening and the outlet, and above the conveyor member there is a hot air blowing unit as a heating medium close to the workpiece that moves on the conveyor member, and below the conveyor member. A heat treatment device for sheet-like materials, in which heating plates for workpieces are placed close to each other and facing each other.