Substrate processing apparatus and substrate plating apparatus

Abstract

A substrate processing apparatus fills a metal such as copper or the like in fine interconnection patterns or trenches defined in a semiconductor substrate. The substrate processing apparatus has a loading / unloading unit for placing a substrate cassette to allow a substrate to be loaded and unloaded, a substrate treating unit for treating a substrate, and a transfer robot for transferring a substrate between the loading / unloading unit and the substrate treating unit. The loading / unloading unit, the substrate treating unit, and the transfer robot are installed in a single facility. The loading / unloading unit has a rotary table which is horizontally rotatable for positioning the substrate cassette in a position to detect the substrate cassette placed in the loading / unloading unit and to remove the substrate from the substrate cassette with the transfer robot.

Description

[0001] This application is a divisional application of Ser. No. 10 / 742,390, filed Dec. 22, 2003, which is a divisional application of Ser. No. 09 / 864,210 filed May 25, 2001, now U.S. Pat. No. 6,689,257.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0002] 1. Field of the Invention [0003] The present invention relates to a substrate processing apparatus and a substrate plating apparatus, and more particularly to a substrate processing apparatus and a substrate plating apparatus for filling a metal such as copper (Cu) or the like in fine interconnection patterns (trenches) on a semiconductor substrate, and a substrate processing apparatus for electrolyzing a surface of a substrate in a plurality of stages. [0004] 2. Description of the Related Art [0005] Aluminum or aluminum alloy has generally been used as a material for forming interconnection circuits on semiconductor substrates. As the integrated density has increased in recent years, there is a demand for the usage of a material having a higher cond...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0018] It is a first object of the present invention to provide a substrate processing apparatus which has a loading / unloading unit, a transfer robot, and various units that can efficiently be placed in one facility, and which has an excellent maintenance capability.

[0019] A second object of the present invention is to provide a substrate plating apparatus which has a single unit of reduced size and improved controllability for plating and performing its supplementary process, and which has an excellent maintenance capability.

[0020] A third object of the present invention is to provide a substrate processing apparatus which is compact and low in cost, allows a smooth transition from one substrate processing process to another substrate processing process to be performed in a short period of time, and can provide a stable substrate processing process.

Problems solved by technology

However, the CVD process is costly for forming copper interconnections, and the sputtering process fails to embed copper or its alloy in interconnection pattern trenches when the interconnection pattern trenches have a high aspect ratio, i.e., a high ratio of depth to width.

With the conventional plating apparatus, however, various structural limitations imposed by paths to transfer substrates and paths of the transfer robot make it difficult to achieve an efficient layout of the loading / unloading unit, the transfer robot, and the various units within one facility.

Another problem is that the conventional plating apparatuses suffer some maintenance problems.

These drawbacks are also found in other substrate processing apparatuses, such as a polishing apparatus for chemically and mechanically polishing (CMP) substrate surfaces and the like.

Therefore, the plating apparatus is considerably complex in structure and difficult to control, takes up a large installation area, and is manufactured at a high cost.

Due to variations in formed seed layers, voids tend to be formed in bottoms and side walls of interconnections and seams are liable to be formed in central regions of interconnections, making those interconnections defective.

Since these plating apparatuses occupy a large installation space in a clean room, the clean room needs to be large in size.

Those plating apparatuses are responsible for an increase in the cost of the overall system.

In addition, it is complex and time-consuming to deliver substrates between the plating apparatus.

The required substrate reversing machine poses an obstacle to attempts to make the overall system more compact and less costly.

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