Cooling unit, processing chamber, part in processing chamber, and cooling method

Abstract

The present invention provides a cooling unit and a cooling method, which can reduce thermal medium necessary for vacuum evaporation cooling and efficiently cool a part to be cooled. The cooling unit for cooling a target object to a target temperature includes a decompression chamber (60) thermally connected to the target object; a spraying part (64) which sprays a liquid heat medium having a temperature equal to or lower than the target temperature to an inner surface of the decompression chamber (60); an electric field generator (68) which generates an electric field such that the heat medium sprayed from the spraying part (64) is attached to the inner surface of the decompression chamber (60); and an exhaust part which evacuates the decompression chamber such that a pressure in the decompression chamber is equal to or lower than a saturated vapor pressure of the heat medium at the target temperature.

Description

technical field [0001] The present invention relates to a cooling mechanism and a cooling method that are controlled so as to cool and maintain the temperature of a member to be cooled at a target temperature, and to a processing chamber constituting the cooling mechanism and components within the processing chamber. Background technique [0002] In semiconductor manufacturing equipment, plasma is often used for etching and other processes on a semiconductor wafer as an object to be processed. However, the plasma may unnecessarily heat the semiconductor wafer and the wall surface of the processing chamber to a high temperature. In addition, semiconductor manufacturing apparatuses that require high temperatures when processing semiconductor wafers are also used, but even such apparatuses need to be cooled for other processing such as transportation after processing. Therefore, the semiconductor manufacturing apparatus includes a cooling mechanism for cooling the semiconductor...

AI Technical Summary

Problems solved by technology

[0003] However, in the cooling by the forced convection heat transfer method, since there is a certain limit to the heat transfer characteristics of the flow path, it is difficult to uniformly cool the semiconductor wafer or the like and the responsiveness of temperature control is poor.

Of course, it can be considered to increase the amount of heat exchange between the heat medium and the cooling unit, and to install fins in the flow path to improve the heat transfer characteristics of the flow path. However, since the heat transfer characteristics of the flow path have an inverse relationship with the pressure loss, the When the heat transfer characteristics of the flow path increase, the pressure loss of the flow path increases, and the energy consumption of the pump that sends out the heat medium increases.

Conversely, when the pressure loss is reduced to save energy, the temperature difference between the input side and the output side of the heat medium increases, the heat transfer characteristics of the flow path deteriorate, and uniform cooling of the semiconductor wafer becomes difficult.

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