KR101400918B1 - Method for operating semiconductor manufacturing apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to a method of operating a semiconductor manufacturing equipment, comprising the steps of introducing a substrate into a chamber, depositing a thin film on the substrate in the chamber, and withdrawing the substrate on which the thin film has been deposited, And coating a particle prevention film on the inner side surface of the chamber. As described above, the present invention can improve the productivity by minimizing the stopping time of the deposition chamber by suppressing the generation of particles by forming a particle prevention film on the inner side of the deposition chamber after the thin film deposition using the deposition chamber.

Chamber, particle, barrier, ALD window, dwell time, wait time

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD [0001] The present invention relates to a method for operating a semiconductor manufacturing apparatus,

1 is a flow chart illustrating a method of operating a semiconductor manufacturing equipment according to an embodiment of the present invention.

2 is a schematic cross-sectional view of a semiconductor manufacturing equipment according to an embodiment;

3 is a flow chart for explaining a method of operating a deposition equipment in the case of using an Al ₂ O ₃ film as a particle prevention film.

4 is a flowchart illustrating a method of operating a deposition apparatus according to a modification of the embodiment.

5 is an enlarged cross-sectional view of region A in Fig. 2 to illustrate thin film deposition on the inner side of the chamber.

6 is a graph for explaining an ALD window;

7 is a graph for explaining particle stabilization according to a particle barrier coating;

Description of the Related Art

10: substrate 100: chamber

110: substrate holder part 120: gas injection part

130: process gas supply unit 140: raw material gas supply unit

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention [0001] The present invention relates to a method of operating a semiconductor manufacturing equipment, and more particularly, to a semiconductor manufacturing equipment operation method capable of reducing a period of a stop period during which no process is performed,

The downtime of semiconductor manufacturing equipment in semiconductor production has a great impact on semiconductor productivity. That is, since the operation of the semiconductor manufacturing apparatus is stopped, the semiconductor production is not performed during the stoppage time. Therefore, the interval of the stopping time of the semiconductor manufacturing equipment can be minimized and the semiconductor productivity can be improved.

The semiconductor manufacturing equipment includes a deposition chamber for forming a semiconductor film on a semiconductor wafer. Such semiconductor manufacturing equipment stops its operation when particles are detected on the processed semiconductor wafer or when the thickness of the thin film formed through the equipment is abnormal. Then, after solving these problems, restart operation is carried out.

In particular, in the case of a deposition chamber for depositing a semiconductor thin film on a semiconductor wafer, undesirably formed semiconductor thin films on the inner side of the chamber act as a particle source upon thin film deposition on the wafer. For example, when depositing a metal film using an ALD process, the remaining reactant remains in a physically adsorbed state (with a small bonding force) in a region having a temperature lower than the process temperature, such as the inner side of the chamber. Through a series of processes, these residual reactants continue to build up, causing particle problems. In addition, the remaining reactant that is continuously accumulated becomes difficult to remove in-situ gradually while being subjected to thermal energy during the process. As a result, the operation of the chamber is stopped in order to remove the remaining reactants on the inner side of the chamber, and then the wet cleaning process is performed.

When the operation of the chamber is stopped and the wet cleaning process is performed, the operation rate of the chamber is lowered, which is a serious reason for lowering the productivity of the product.

Accordingly, in order to solve the above-described problems, the present invention has been made to solve the above problems by forming a particle prevention film on the inside of the chamber during the semiconductor thin film deposition process using semiconductor manufacturing equipment, And it is an object of the present invention to provide a method of operating a semiconductor manufacturing equipment capable of increasing the productivity by minimizing the stopping time of the equipment by increasing the interval.

The method comprising the steps of: drawing a substrate into a chamber according to the present invention; depositing a thin film on the substrate in the chamber; withdrawing the substrate on which the thin film is deposited out of the chamber; The method comprising the steps of:

The method may further include the steps of introducing a substrate into the chamber according to the present invention, depositing an oxide containing Zr on the substrate, drawing the substrate on which the Zr-containing oxide is deposited to the outside of the chamber, And coating the inner surface of the chamber with a particle prevention film containing Al.

And detecting the amount of particles on the substrate after the step of withdrawing the substrate on which the thin film is deposited out of the chamber.

It is effective to carry out the step of drawing the substrate into the chamber again according to the detected amount of particles.

It is possible to carry out the step of cleaning the inside surface of the chamber according to the detected amount of particles and then drawing the substrate into the chamber again.

Wherein the step of coating the anti-particle film on the inner side surface of the chamber further comprises the step of detecting the amount of particles on the substrate, wherein the step of pulling the substrate into the chamber is performed again according to the detected amount of particles, It is preferable to carry out a step of cleaning the inner surface.

After cleaning the inside surface of the chamber, it is effective to carry out the step of drawing the substrate into the chamber again.

A step of coating the anti-particle film on the inner side surface of the chamber, a step of inspecting the anti-particle film, and a step of pulling the substrate into the chamber according to the inspection result, or wet cleaning the inner side of the chamber As shown in FIG.

Wherein the step of inspecting the anti-particle film includes the steps of: drawing a substrate into the chamber to deposit a thin film on the substrate; withdrawing the substrate on which the thin film is deposited to the outside of the chamber; Step.

Further comprising the step of drawing a dummy substrate into the chamber before coating the particle prevention film on the inner side surface of the chamber, wherein the step of coating the anti-particle film on the inner side of the chamber includes drawing the dummy substrate It is effective to include more.

It is effective that the range of the temperature region where the thickness of the deposited film does not increase even when the temperature changes, is wider than that of the thin film.

Preferably, the thin film uses a metal oxide film containing at least one metal selected from the group consisting of Hf, Zr, Sr, Ti, Ba, Si, and Ta, and the metal oxide film including Al is used as the particle prevention film.

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. However, the present invention is not limited to the embodiments described below, but may be implemented in various other forms, and these embodiments are not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the scope of the invention to those skilled in the art. It is provided to let you know completely. Wherein like reference numerals refer to like elements throughout.

1 is a flowchart illustrating a method of operating a semiconductor manufacturing equipment according to an embodiment of the present invention. 2 is a schematic cross-sectional view of a semiconductor manufacturing equipment according to an embodiment.

Referring to FIGS. 1 and 2, a semiconductor manufacturing process operation method according to the present embodiment performs an inner chamber coating process for coating an inner wall of a chamber during a period between withdrawing and pulling-out of a substrate.

As shown in FIG. 1, a substrate on which a thin film is to be deposited is introduced into a deposition chamber of a semiconductor manufacturing apparatus (S10). At this time, the substrate attraction is introduced through a load lock chamber or a substrate transfer chamber (for example, a transfer module) provided outside the deposition chamber. Subsequently, the deposition chamber performs a thin film deposition process to deposit a thin film on the substrate (S20). In the thin film deposition process, a process gas for depositing a thin film is supplied into a deposition chamber, and a thin film is deposited on the substrate through the reaction of the process gas. At this time, a fine thin film can be deposited on the inner surface of the deposition chamber. A thin film having a target thickness is deposited on the substrate, and then the substrate on which the thin film deposition is completed is taken out of the chamber (S30). Next, a chamber coating process is performed to form a particle prevention film on the inner side of the chamber (S40). A source gas for the particle barrier film is supplied to the inside of the deposition chamber to form a particle barrier film on the side surface of the deposition chamber. Then, it is judged whether a thin film is deposited on all the substrates. That is, it is determined whether deposition of the last substrate is completed (S50). If the thin film deposition is completed on all the substrates, the operation of the semiconductor manufacturing apparatus is stopped. However, if there is a new substrate on which a thin film is deposited, a new substrate is drawn into the chamber (S10).

As described above, in this embodiment, the raw material gas for the particle barrier film is supplied during the interval where the deposition process is temporarily stopped (the interval of the supply of the process gas is blocked) between the drawing of the substrate and the pulling-in of the new substrate, Thereby forming a barrier film.

However, the present invention is not limited thereto. The film deposition process may be performed after deposition of a thin film on a predetermined number of substrates, or may be performed for a certain period of time.

Hereinafter, an atomic layer deposition apparatus for atomic layer deposition (ALD) in the deposition chamber will be described. However, the present invention is not limited thereto, and it may be applied to a chemical vapor deposition apparatus that performs chemical vapor deposition (CVD).

The deposition apparatus includes a chamber 100 having a reaction space surrounded by inner walls as shown in FIG. 2, a substrate holding portion 110 provided in the reaction space, a substrate 100 placed on the substrate holding portion 110 And a gas injection unit 120 for injecting a gas into the chamber.

A process gas supply unit 130 for supplying a process gas for deposition of a thin film to the gas injection unit 120 and a source gas supply unit 140 for supplying a source gas for deposition of a particle prevention film to the gas injection unit 120 do. Although not shown, an entrance for the substrate 10 is provided at one side of the chamber 100. And an exhaust unit for exhausting the gas inside the chamber 100 and a temperature controller for controlling the temperature of the chamber 100.

The chamber 100 includes a chamber lid that, although not shown, covers the lower chamber body and the lower chamber body.

The substrate holder 110 surrounds the substrate 10 drawn into the chamber 100. It is preferable that a plurality of substrates 10 are placed on the substrate holding portion 110 as shown in FIG. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and the substrate holding portion 110 may surround a single substrate 10. An electrostatic chuck or a vacuum chuck may be used for the substrate holding portion 110. The deposition apparatus according to the present embodiment may further include a driving unit for moving the substrate holding unit 110 up or down. The substrate holding portion 110 further includes a lift pin for supporting the substrate 10 in and out. It is preferable to heat the substrate 10 provided with the heating means in the substrate holding portion 110.

The gas injecting section 120 includes a rotating rotary shaft and an injector part connected to the rotary shaft to inject gas. The rotating shaft is rotated through the external driving unit. The injector connected to the rotary shaft rotates. As a result, the gas injected from the injector portion sweeps over the substrate 10 placed on the lower substrate mounting portion 110.

Here, it is preferable that four injectors are arranged in a cross shape in the injector portion. The injectors in the injector part may inject different gases or may inject the same gas. For example, when a thin film is deposited on the substrate 10, the two injectors inject purge gas, and the injectors provided between the injectors injecting the purge gas respectively inject the source gas and the reactive gas.

The source gas, the purge gas, the reactive gas, and the purge gas are successively and sequentially passed through the one substrate 10. The source gas adsorbed on the substrate 10 and the reactive gas react with each other to form a thin film of the mono-element layer on the substrate 10.

The source gas and the reaction gas are rotated through the injector part, and the purge gas is injected following the injector part. Whereby the source gas and the reactive gas are purged by the subsequent purge gas. However, the source gas and the reactive gas are not completely purged, but react to form a thin film on the inner side of the chamber 100. As described in the prior art, such a thin film is a main cause of particles.

However, the present invention is not limited to this, and the gas spraying unit 120 may be manufactured in the form of a showerhead. In this case, the gas injecting section 120 sequentially injects the source gas, the purge gas, the reaction gas, and the purge gas into the chamber 100. Further, the deposition apparatus may further include a separate plasma generating device for generating a plasma though not shown.

Thus, in this embodiment, the raw material gas for depositing the anti-particle film is supplied into the chamber 100 through the gas injecting unit 120 until the new substrate 10 is pulled out after the substrate 10 having been processed is taken out. Accordingly, a particle prevention film is formed on the thin film formed on the inner side of the chamber 100 during the deposition of the thin film to suppress the phenomenon of the thin film becoming a particle.

In the following, a metal oxide film is formed by using the above-described vapor deposition apparatus, and an Al ₂ O ₃ film is used as a particle prevention film.

3 is a flow chart for explaining a method of operating the deposition equipment in the case of using an Al ₂ O ₃ film as a particle prevention film. 4 is a flowchart illustrating a method of operating a deposition apparatus according to a modification of the embodiment. 5 is an enlarged cross-sectional view of the region A in Fig. 2 to explain the thin film lamination on the inner side of the chamber. 6 is a graph for explaining an ALD window.

Here, it is effective to use an oxide film containing at least one of Hf, Zr, Sr, Ti, Ba, Si and Ta as the metal oxide film. In this embodiment, a description will be given mainly on the use of a ZrO ₂ film as the metal oxide film.

As shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, the substrate 10 is drawn on the substrate support 110 inside the chamber 100 (S100). When the plurality of substrates 10 are placed on the substrate support 110, the substrate support 110 rotates.

After the substrate 10 is completely drawn, a metal oxide film (i.e., ZrO ₂ ) is formed on the substrate 10 (S 110). The formation of the ZrO ₂ film is as follows. A process gas (for example, a source gas, a reactive gas, and a purge gas) of the process gas supply unit 130 is sprayed onto the substrate 10 introduced through the gas spray unit 120 to form a ZrO ₂ film. At this time, the ZrO ₂ film is deposited through the adsorption of the source gas, the purging of the source gas, the reaction between the adsorbed source gas and the reactive gas, and the purging of the reactive gas. At this time, a normal thin film is deposited in a temperature region of the substrate 10, that is, in an ALD window.

Here, the ALD window W refers to a temperature region (temperature region) in which the thickness of a deposited film does not increase even if the temperature changes, as shown in FIG. In this section, the first and second raw materials react with the surface of the substrate stably to form a film of an atomic layer unit. As shown in the graph of FIG. 6, in the temperature range lower than the ALD window (W), the remaining reaction product after completion of the surface reaction in the reactant is physically adsorbed on the surface, so that the thickness of the remaining film becomes thicker and the density of the film becomes lower.

A heating means is provided in the substrate holding portion 110 on which the substrate 10 is placed so that the temperature of the surface of the substrate 10 is maintained within the ALD window W to form a thin film having a high density. However, the chamber 100 maintains a vacuum and uses a large number of O-rings to maintain this vacuum. Therefore, in order to prevent the damage of the O-ring, the inner side of the chamber 100 provided with the O-ring (the side wall of the chamber 100 and the lead region of the chamber 100) is cooled. Thus, the inner surface of the chamber 100 is in a lower temperature state than the ALD window W. [ As deposition progresses, a low density ZrO ₂ film is formed on the inner surface of the chamber 100 by physical adsorption. Here, the liquid source of the TEMA (TetrakisEthylMethylamine) series used for making the ZrO ₂ film as an ALD is composed of an amine group. Thus, the film formed from the unreacted material of the source on the inner side of the chamber 100 remains as a macromolecule of the carbide in which the ligand is not completely removed. If the film is thicker than a certain thickness, it affects the substrate 10 as particles. In this embodiment, a separate coating film (for example, Al ₂ O ₃ film containing TMA) is formed on the above-described film to reduce the generation period of the particles. A detailed description thereof will be described later.

After the ZrO ₂ film is formed on the substrate 10 on the substrate holding portion 110 as described above, the substrate 10 on the substrate holding portion 110 is taken out of the chamber 100 (S120).

The particle generation of the drawn substrate 10 is inspected (S130). As a result of the inspection, if no particles are generated, the new substrate 10 is drawn into the chamber 100 (S100). If particles are generated, the inner surface of the chamber 100 is coated with an Al ₂ O ₃ film (S140). That is, the source gas of the source gas supply unit 140 is injected into the reaction space of the chamber 100 through the gas injection unit 120 to form an Al ₂ O ₃ film on the inner surface of the chamber 100. The Al ₂ O ₃ film can be deposited at a temperature lower than the lowest temperature of the ALD window (W) of the ZrO ₂ film (that is, the metal oxide film), and can be deposited at a temperature higher than the maximum temperature. That is, the range of the ALD window (W) of the Al ₂ O ₃ film is larger than the range of the ALD window (W) of the ZrO ₂ film. Stable process can be performed, and the amount of generated particles is relatively reduced.

Accordingly, when only the ZrO ₂ film is continuously deposited on the inner surface of the chamber 100, the generation of mucous membrane due to the unreacted material is increased, and the increase of particles due to the mucous membrane is accelerated. However, as shown in FIG. 5, when the ZrO ₂ film is formed and then the Al ₂ O ₃ film is periodically coated, the generation of unreacted materials can be reduced and the particles generated by the unreacted materials can be reduced.

Al ₂ O ₃ coating film thickness is related to (i.e., the time from after the substrate take-off until a new incoming substrate) and, Al ₂ O ₃ film deposition rate and the Al ₂ O ₃ film coating process cycle latency. Therefore, an appropriate value of the thickness of the Al ₂ O ₃ film is determined in consideration of the above factors. The thickness of the Al ₂ O ₃ film is preferably 1 nm to 1 μm. The thickness of the ZrO2 film is also preferably 1 nm to 1 占 퐉.

Then, the function test of the Al ₂ O ₃ film is performed (S150). That is, the substrate 10 is drawn into the chamber 100 in which the Al ₂ O ₃ film is formed, and the ZrO ₂ film is deposited. After that, the substrate is taken out and the particle of the substrate is inspected again. At this time, if the amount of the examined particles is smaller than the previous inspection, it is determined to be good and the substrate is brought into the chamber again (S100). However, if the amount of particles inspected is the same as that of the preceding inspection or more than the preceding inspection, it is determined that the particles are defective and the operation of the chamber 100 is stopped.

However, the present invention is not limited to this, and the particle detection amount may be set to two reference ranges at the time of the particle detection (S130) performed after the previous substrate take-off (S120). If the particle detection amount is less than the first reference set value, The substrate 10 is drawn in to deposit a thin film (S100). If the particle detection amount is between the first reference setting value and the second reference setting value, the particle prevention film is coated on the inner side surface of the chamber 100 (S140)), then the new substrate 10 is introduced (S100). If the particle detection amount is larger than the second reference set value, the operation of the chamber 100 is stopped and the chamber cleaning step is performed. Also, at the functional inspection of the Al ₂ O ₃ film (S150), the two reference set values as described above may be set to perform the respective operations according to the amount of particles.

As described above, in the present embodiment, generation of particles can be reduced as described above, and the intervals for carrying out the chamber cleaning process can be increased. Thereby increasing the operating time of the deposition chamber and improving the productivity.

In the above description, the ZrO ₂ film and the Al ₂ O ₃ film are deposited on the inner surface of the chamber 100. However, the inner surface of the chamber 100 may be provided with a shield for protecting the inner surface without being directly exposed to the space. Therefore, a ZrO ₂ film and an Al ₂ O ₃ film may be deposited on the shield.

The present embodiment is not limited to this, and a modification as shown in Fig. 4 is possible. Pulling the substrates (10) and (S200), and draws a ZrO ₂ film deposited thereon (S210), and then the substrate 10 (S220). When the number of the substrates 10 is not equal to the number of the substrates 10 determined by counting the substrate 10, the ZrO ₂ film is deposited by drawing the substrate 10 again. If the number of the substrates 10 is the same as that of the substrate 10, the Al ₂ O ₃ film is coated on the inner side of the chamber 100 (S240). Of course, in the above-described modification, it is judged whether or not the Al ₂ O ₃ film is deposited based on the number of the substrates 10 on which the ZrO ₂ film is formed. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and the reference may be substituted for a predetermined period of time. Then, the function test of the Al ₂ O ₃ film is performed (S250).

When forming the Al ₂ O ₃ film, the dummy substrate may be drawn into the chamber and then the process may be performed. This can keep the metal film process temperature constant and prevent the Al ₂ O ₃ film from depositing on the substrate support region of the substrate support 110.

7 is a graph for explaining the particle stabilization according to the particle prevention film coating.

As shown in the graph of FIG. 7, when the particle prevention film is formed at an instant when the amount of particles increases abruptly, the generation of particles is reduced and stabilized. For example, about 2700 particles of the substrate (10) were examined and about 270 particles were detected. In this case, conventionally, after the operation of the chamber 100 is stopped, a cleaning process for cleaning the inner surface of the chamber 100 is performed. However, according to the present invention, as shown in the graph of FIG. 7, the Al ₂ O ₃ film (particle prevention film) is coated on the inner side surface of the chamber 100, and only about 50 particles are detected on the subsequent substrate to reduce the particles. Accordingly, it is not necessary to perform a separate chamber cleaning process which has been performed conventionally. In this way it is possible to stabilize the particles through the Al ₂ O ₃ coating film, it is possible to increase productivity by increasing the chamber cleaning process cycle through periodic Al ₂ O ₃ film is deposited.

In the above description, a thin film is deposited on one substrate and then a particle prevention film is formed on the inner side of the chamber. However, the method of operating the deposition apparatus according to this embodiment is not limited to this, and a thin film may be deposited on a plurality of substrates, and then a particle prevention film may be formed. That is, a thin film may be deposited on a predetermined number of substrates, and then the particle prevention film may be coated on the inner side of the chamber.

As described above, the present invention can improve the productivity by minimizing the stopping time of the deposition chamber by suppressing the generation of particles by forming a particle prevention film on the inner side of the deposition chamber after the thin film deposition process using the deposition chamber.

In addition, the present invention can coat the anti-particle film during the waiting time of the deposition chamber to perform the coating process without increasing the process time.

The present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiments, but may be embodied in various forms. In other words, the above-described embodiments are provided so that the disclosure of the present invention is complete, and those skilled in the art will fully understand the scope of the invention, and the scope of the present invention should be understood by the appended claims .

Claims (12)

Introducing the substrate into the chamber; Depositing a thin film on the substrate in the chamber; Withdrawing the substrate on which the thin film is deposited out of the chamber; And And coating a film containing Al on the inner side surface of the chamber, Further comprising the step of periodically coating the thin film and the Al-containing film on the inner surface of the chamber. delete The method of claim 1, further comprising, after withdrawing the substrate on which the thin film is deposited, Further comprising detecting the amount of particles on the substrate. delete delete The method according to claim 1, wherein after coating the Al-containing film on the inner side surface of the chamber, Detecting an amount of particles on the substrate, According to the detected amount of particles, The step of drawing the substrate into the chamber is performed again, And cleaning the inside surface of the chamber. delete delete delete The method according to claim 1, wherein before coating the Al-containing film on the inner side surface of the chamber, Further comprising the step of drawing a dummy substrate into said chamber, After the step of coating the Al-containing film on the inner side surface of the chamber, And drawing out the dummy substrate. Introducing the substrate into the chamber; Depositing a thin film on the substrate in the chamber; Withdrawing the substrate on which the thin film is deposited out of the chamber; And And coating a particle prevention film on the inner side surface of the chamber, Wherein the particle prevention film has a temperature range in which the thickness of the deposited film does not increase even when the temperature is changed is larger than the thin film. The method of claim 11, And periodically coating the thin film and the anti-particle film on the inner surface of the chamber.

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