Wafer transfer chamber, wafer deposition system, and wafer retrieval method

Abstract

The application provides a wafer conveying cavity, which separates a wafer and a tray through cooperation of a supporting assembly and a wafer taking assembly. The wafer taking assembly can move up and down relative to the supporting assembly to lift the wafer from the back of the wafer, so that the wafer is separated from the tray. The subsequent machine arm can conveniently put the separated wafer into a wafer box. Meanwhile, the wafer is prevented from being contacted from the front edge, so that particle pollution is avoided. The uniformity trajectory of the supporting assembly and the wafer taking assembly is controlled by the system, so that a more stable and fast wafer taking process is realized, and the overall efficiency is improved.

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD

[0001] The present application relates to the field of wafer deposition technology, in particular to a wafer transfer cavity, a wafer deposition system and a wafer taking-out method. BACKGROUND

[0002] Semiconductor devices, such as chips, need to go through a manufacturing process of forming micro-circuits on a silicon wafer as a substrate, and then go through testing and packaging and be divided into individual units. In the process of forming micro-circuits, different material layers need to be deposited on the silicon wafer as the basis for subsequent etching. In order to improve the deposition efficiency, a process flow of simultaneously depositing multiple wafers in a deposition cavity is adopted, for example, multiple wafers are placed on a circular tray, a heater is arranged behind the tray to heat the wafers, and deposition gas is introduced above the wafers. Generally, after the deposition is completed, a transfer robot is used to remove the tray with wafers from the deposition cavity, and after passing through several functional chambers, the tray is finally sent to a normal temperature and pressure placement cavity. In the placement cavity, the wafers are taken out and placed into a wafer box for use in the next process.

[0003] When the wafers are placed into the wafer box, the usual method is to use a robot to place the tray with wafers into the placement cavity, then close the wafer transfer port of the placement cavity and the vacuum transfer cavity where the robot is located, and then use a manual prying method to rotate the tray to take out the wafers one by one and place them into the wafer box in a normal pressure environment. When manually prying, force is applied from the edge of the wafer, which inevitably causes particle contamination on the edge of the wafer, posing a risk for subsequent deposition or etching steps. In addition, the efficiency of manual wafer taking-out cannot be guaranteed to be stable, and the process time is generally long. SUMMARY

[0004] To solve the above technical problems, the present application provides a wafer transfer cavity for storing a tray carrying wafers, comprising:

[0005] a cavity provided with a wafer transfer port for accommodating the tray carrying wafers to enter and exit;

[0006] a support assembly located in the cavity, the support assembly is movably connected with the tray for placing the tray;

[0007] a wafer taking-out assembly located in the cavity for separating the wafers from the tray;

[0008] The support assembly and / or the wafer taking-out assembly can rotate, and the support assembly and / or the wafer taking-out assembly can move along the vertical direction.

[0009] Optionally, the support assembly can rotate the tray, and the wafer taking-out assembly can lift up along the vertical direction to separate the wafers from the tray from below the tray.

[0010] Optionally, the tray comprises a plurality of circular holes with an inner diameter larger than the diameter of the wafer, and the circular holes comprise a bearing surface in contact with the wafer.

[0011] Optionally, the bearing surface is the upper surface of a circular ring fixedly connected to the sidewall of the circular hole, and the wafer picking assembly can contact the back surface of the wafer through the circular hole.

[0012] Optionally, the tray comprises a plurality of grooves, and the grooves have a plurality of through holes below the wafer.

[0013] Optionally, the through holes are vertically arranged on the tray, and the through holes are provided with lifting pins.

[0014] Optionally, the top end of the wafer picking assembly can push the lifting pins to move up and down along the through holes.

[0015] Optionally, the top end of the wafer picking assembly has a plurality of top pins vertically arranged on the tray, and the top pins can be inserted into the through holes.

[0016] Optionally, the support assembly comprises a support shaft connected to a rotating motor, and the top end of the support shaft is clamped to the tray.

[0017] Optionally, the tray is circular, the support assembly can move in the vertical direction, and can rotate around the central axis of the tray.

[0018] Optionally, the wafer picking assembly comprises at least one wafer picking column below the wafer.

[0019] Optionally, the tray is circular, the wafer picking assembly comprises a wafer picking column, and the wafer picking column can rotate around the central axis of the tray.

[0020] The present application also provides a wafer deposition system, comprising:

[0021] The wafer transfer chamber of any one of the above;

[0022] The reaction chamber is used for performing a deposition reaction on the wafer.

[0023] The vacuum transfer chamber comprises a first mechanical arm for taking out the tray from the reaction chamber.

[0024] The storage chamber comprises a second mechanical arm for taking out the wafer from the wafer transfer chamber and placing the wafer into a wafer box.

[0025] Optionally, it further comprises a cooling chamber, and the first mechanical arm takes out the tray from the cooling chamber and places it into the wafer transfer chamber.

[0026] The present application also provides a wafer taking-out method, comprising the following steps:

[0027] In any one of the wafer transfer cavities described above, moving the pick-up assembly upward relative to the tray to separate the wafer from the tray at the wafer separation portion;

[0028] Removing the separated wafer, moving the pick-up assembly downward relative to the tray to the initial position;

[0029] Rotating the support assembly and / or pick-up assembly to the next position, repeating the above steps until all wafers are separated from the tray and removed.

[0030] The present application has the advantages that the present application provides a wafer transfer cavity, through the cooperation of the support assembly and the pick-up assembly, the wafer and the tray are separated, the pick-up assembly can move up and down relative to the support assembly to lift the wafer from the back of the wafer to separate the wafer from the tray, which facilitates the subsequent robot arm to place the separated wafer into the wafer box, at the same time, avoids the particle pollution caused by contacting the wafer from the front edge, and through the control of the uniformity trajectory of the system on the support assembly and the pick-up assembly, a more stable and fast wafer picking process can be realized, which is beneficial to improve the overall efficiency, and the present application further provides a wafer deposition system including a transfer cavity configured with a support assembly and a pick-up assembly, through the cooperation with a deposition cavity and a robot arm, the whole wafer transfer process can be optimized, and the automation can be improved. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

[0031] In order to more clearly illustrate the technical solutions in the embodiments of the present application or the prior art, the following will briefly introduce the drawings needed to be used in the embodiments or prior art description. Obviously, the drawings in the following description are only some embodiments of the present application, and other drawings can be obtained by those skilled in the art without creative labor.

[0032] Figure 1 It is a structural schematic diagram of a deposition reaction cavity in the prior art;

[0033] Figure 2 It is a structural schematic diagram of a reaction cavity using the tray of the embodiment of the present application;

[0034] Figure 3 It is a structural schematic diagram of the tray of the embodiment of the present application;

[0035] Figure 4 It is a structural schematic diagram of the tray of the embodiment of the present application;

[0036] Figure 5 It is a bottom view of the tray of the embodiment of the present application;

[0037] Figure 6 It is a structural schematic diagram of the transfer cavity in state one of the embodiment of the present application;

[0038] Figure 7 Figure 2 is a schematic view of a tray according to an embodiment of the present application;

[0039] Figure 8 Figure 3 is a schematic view of a tray according to another embodiment of the present application;

[0040] Figure 9 Figure 4 is a schematic view of a tray according to another embodiment of the present application;

[0041] Figure 10 Figure 5 is a schematic view of a tray according to another embodiment of the present application;

[0042] Figure 11 Figure 6 is a schematic view of a tray according to another embodiment of the present application;

[0043] Figure 12 Figure 7 is a schematic view of a tray according to another embodiment of the present application;

[0044] Figure 13 Figure 8 is a schematic view of a tray according to another embodiment of the present application

[0045] Figure 14 Figure 9 is a schematic view of a wafer deposition system according to an embodiment of the present application. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0046] In order to make the objects, technical solutions and advantages of the embodiments of the present application clearer, the technical solutions in the embodiments of the present application will be described clearly and completely below with reference to the drawings in the embodiments of the present application. Obviously, the described embodiments are some but not all of the embodiments of the present application. Based on the embodiments in the present application, all other embodiments obtained by those of ordinary skill in the art without creative work fall within the protection scope of the present application.

[0047] As Figure 1The reaction chamber for depositing on wafer surface in prior art is shown in the figure, which includes a reaction chamber, a gas shower head 5 is arranged on the top of the chamber, and an exhaust port is arranged on the bottom of the chamber. The deposition gas is input from the gas shower head 5 to the reaction chamber, and the excess gas is discharged through the exhaust port after being deposited on the wafer 2. The gas pressure in the reaction chamber is maintained by the gas shower head 5 and the exhaust port. The tray 100 is used to carry the wafer 2, and multiple wafers 2 are usually placed on the same tray 100 to improve the reaction efficiency. The base 400 is used to support the tray 100, and the base 400 can be controlled to rotate uniformly along a certain direction to ensure uniform reaction. A heater 3 is arranged below the tray 100 to heat the back of the tray 100, which in turn conducts to the wafer 2 to promote the deposition reaction. The tray 100 is movably connected to the base 400. When the deposition reaction is completed, the wafer 2 is taken out from the reaction chamber by a robot in a vacuum transmission chamber. Then, the wafer 2 is pried from the tray 100 by manually prying the wafer 2 from the gap between the wafer 2 and the tray 100, and finally placed in a wafer box.

[0048] As shown in Figure 2 , an embodiment of the present application relates to a schematic diagram of the tray 100 in the reaction chamber. The difference from the prior art is that the tray 100 is placed on a support plate 110, the wafer 2 is placed on the tray 100, and the back of the wafer 2 is in contact with the support plate 110. The tray 100 can be clamped with the support plate 110, and the support plate 110 can be fixedly connected with the base. The combined state of the tray 100 and the support plate 110 mounted on the base 400 is shown in Figure 2 . In some embodiments, the split state of the tray 100 and the support plate 110 is shown in Figure 3 . The upper surface of the support plate 110 and the lower surface of the tray 100 are complementary in shape and are made of the same material. When combined together, they can basically match without affecting the heating of the heater 3 below the support plate 110 on the wafer 2. The partial enlarged view of the contact between the tray 100 and the support plate 110 and the wafer is shown in Figure 4 . The tray 100 includes a circular hole 111 with an inner diameter slightly larger than the diameter of the wafer 2. A bearing surface in contact with the wafer 2 is arranged on the side wall of the circular hole 111 to limit the position of the wafer. In this embodiment, the bearing surface 112 is the upper surface of the circular ring arranged on the side wall of the circular hole 111, and the inner diameter of the circular ring is smaller than the diameter of the wafer. The circular ring can be integrally machined with the circular hole. In other embodiments, the bearing surface can be a plurality of legs extending from the side wall of the circular hole 111. The support plate 110 is provided with a protrusion corresponding to the circular hole 111. When the tray is placed on the support plate 110, the protrusion can fill the circular ring and be in contact with the wafer 2. Figure 5Figure 6 is a bottom view of the tray according to the first embodiment of the present application. In this embodiment, the tray 100 has six round holes 111 and a positioning groove 113 in the center of the tray 100. When the tray 100 is in the reaction cavity, the positioning groove 113 can be clamped with the support plate 110 to avoid relative sliding between the tray 100 and the support plate 110 when the support plate 110 rotates. Figure 6 Figure 7 shows that when the tray 100 is moved to the wafer transfer cavity of the present application together with the wafer 2 by the mechanical arm, it can also be clamped with the boss 210 at the top end of the support assembly 200 in the wafer transfer cavity.

[0049] Figure 6 Figure 8 is a schematic view of the wafer transfer cavity of the present application when the tray is fed in. The wafer transfer cavity includes a chamber 500 provided with a wafer transfer port. In this embodiment, the wafer transfer port can have two, one of which is used to transfer the tray 100, and the other is used to take out the wafer 2. The chamber 500 is provided at the bottom with a support assembly 200 for placing and limiting the tray 100. In the present application, the support assembly 200 includes a support shaft 220 and a boss 210. In other embodiments, the support assembly 200 can not be limited to a column, for example, it can be a hollow cylinder that supports the tray 100 by contacting the edge of the tray 100, or it can be other devices that can horizontally and stably place the tray 100 and move the tray 100 together. The wafer taking assembly 300 is also provided beside the support assembly 200. In the present application, the wafer taking assembly 300 is provided at the bottom of the chamber 500 and includes a wafer taking column 320 and a platform 310 at the top end of the wafer taking column 320. The wafer taking column 320 can be provided with multiple, and in this embodiment, the number of wafer taking columns is one and located below the wafer. The height of the upper surface of the platform 310 is lower than the height of the support shaft 220 when the tray 100 is transferred. In some other embodiments, the wafer taking assembly can be provided on the side wall or top wall of the chamber 500, as long as a part of it is located below the tray 100 and is lower than the upper surface of the support assembly 200 when the tray 100 is transferred. When the tray 100 is transferred, the wafer transfer port on one side of the chamber is closed. At least one of the support assembly 200 and the wafer taking assembly 300 can move up and down, and at least one of the support assembly 200 and the wafer taking assembly 300 can rotate around the central axis of the tray 100. In this embodiment, the support shaft 220 is connected with the rotating motor 230, so that it can drive the tray 100 to rotate along the central axis of the tray 100, and the wafer taking column 320 can move up and down along the vertical direction. In other embodiments, the support assembly 200 can move up and down, and the wafer taking assembly 300 can rotate along the central axis of the tray 100.

[0050] Figure 9 shows that when the tray 100 is transferred into the wafer transfer cavity, the wafer 2 is taken out by the wafer taking assembly 300. Figure 7The diagram shows the wafer retrieval process in Embodiment 1. Specifically, after the tray 100 and support shaft 220 are stably engaged, the wafer 2 is positioned above the platform 310 in the initial position. The platform 310 can pass through the circular hole 111 and contact the back of the wafer 2. The wafer retrieval column 320 is then raised, lifting the wafer 2 so that it separates from the tray 100. The rising height of the wafer retrieval column 320 is such that the wafer 2 is within the wafer transfer port range. The wafer transfer port is then opened to remove the lifted wafer 2. After the wafer retrieval column 320 descends to its initial height, the support shaft 220 is rotated. The rotation stops when another wafer 2 rotates above the platform 310. The wafer retrieval column 320 is then raised again, and the wafer retrieval process is repeated.

[0051] like Figure 8 The diagram shown is a partial enlarged view of the tray structure according to Embodiment 2 of the present invention. The difference from the previous embodiment is that the tray 100 includes multiple grooves 115 for limiting the wafer 2. The number of grooves 115 corresponds to the number of wafers 2. Multiple through holes 113 are provided at the bottom of the grooves 115, and each through hole contains a lifting pin 114. In this application, there are three through holes 113, evenly distributed below the wafer 2 in the same groove 115. The lifting pin 114 can move up and down along the through holes 113. In the initial state, the upper surface of the lifting pin 114 is lower than the bottom surface of the groove 115, and the length of the lifting pin 114 is greater than the thickness of the tray 100. Figure 9 The diagram shown illustrates the state of the wafer transfer cavity when it is fed into the tray in this embodiment. The lifting pins 114 are located above the platform 310. When the wafer pick-up column 320 rises, the platform 310 can contact the three lifting pins 114. Figure 10 This is a schematic diagram of the wafer retrieval state in Embodiment 2. The wafer retrieval column 320 rises and drives the platform 310 to move to contact the back of the tray 100 and stop. At the same time, the lifting pin 114 is lifted up. The lifting pin 114 lifts the wafer 2 to the wafer transfer port position and then performs the wafer retrieval step. After that, the steps of lowering the wafer retrieval column 320 and rotating the support shaft 220 are repeated until all wafers are retrieved.

[0052] like Figure 11 The image shown is a partial enlarged view of the tray in Embodiment 3 of the present invention. The difference from the previous embodiments is that the tray 100 includes multiple grooves 115 for positioning the wafer 2. The number of grooves 115 corresponds to the number of wafers 2, and multiple through holes 113 are provided at the bottom of the grooves 115. Figure 12 The diagram shown illustrates the state of the wafer transfer cavity when it is placed into the tray in this embodiment. The platform 310 has ejector pins 330. In this embodiment, the number of ejector pins 330 is the same as the number of through holes 113. When the platform 310 moves upward, the ejector pins 310 can be inserted into the through holes 113 and contact the wafer 2. Figure 13Figure 3 shows a schematic diagram of the wafer taking state, the wafer taking column 320 is raised to move the platform 310 to stop in contact with the back of the tray 100, the ejector pin 330 lifts the wafer 2 to the wafer taking position, then the wafer taking steps are performed, and then the steps of lowering the wafer taking column 320, rotating the support shaft 220, etc. are repeated until all wafers are taken out.

[0053] As shown in Figure 14 The present application also provides a wafer deposition system, which comprises the wafer transfer cavity 600 described above, and a reaction cavity 700 for performing deposition reaction on the wafer, the reaction cavity 700 can have multiple; a vacuum transfer cavity 800 comprising a first mechanical arm 810 for taking out the tray from the reaction cavity 700; a storage cavity 900 comprising a second mechanical arm 910 for taking out the wafer from the wafer transfer cavity and placing it into a wafer box, and the wafer deposition system can further comprise a cooling cavity 1000, when the first mechanical arm 810 takes out the tray 100 from the reaction cavity 700, the temperature is too high to be directly placed into the wafer transfer cavity 600, and it needs to be first placed into the cooling cavity 1000 to cool down and then transferred to the wafer transfer cavity to take out the wafer.

[0054] The present application also provides a wafer taking method, which comprises using the wafer transfer cavity to move the wafer taking assembly 300 upward relative to the tray 100 to separate part of the wafers 2 from the tray 100; taking out the separated wafers 2, and moving the wafer taking assembly 300 downward relative to the tray 100 to the initial position; rotating the support assembly 200 to the next position, and repeating the above steps until all wafers 2 are separated from the tray 100 and taken out. The fixed angle of rotation can be set by the system, and in other embodiments, the support assembly 200 can be fixed and the wafer taking assembly 300 can be rotated to the position of the next wafer 2. The movement mode of the wafer taking assembly 300 and the support assembly 200 can be set by the system, thereby improving the overall automation efficiency of the system and avoiding the pollution caused by manual wafer taking.

[0055] The present application provides a wafer transfer cavity, which separates the wafer and the tray by the cooperation of the support assembly and the wafer taking assembly, the wafer taking assembly can move upward and downward relative to the support assembly to lift the wafer from the back of the wafer to separate the wafer from the tray, which facilitates the subsequent mechanical arm to place the separated wafer into a wafer box, and compared with manual wafer taking, the operation efficiency and accuracy are improved, the wafer taking mechanical arm can be controlled by parameter setting of the system to maintain stable wafer taking time, and when the whole process is integrated, the time node can be better controlled to improve the automation degree. At the same time, the particle pollution caused by contacting the wafer from the front edge is avoided, the etching quality of each wafer is ensured, the time delay caused by rejecting the polluted wafer is avoided, and the efficiency is further improved. The present application also provides a wafer deposition system comprising a transfer cavity configured with a support assembly and a wafer taking assembly, which can be used in cooperation with a deposition cavity and a mechanical arm to optimize the whole wafer transfer process and improve the automation.

[0056] While the application has been described in detail by reference to preferred embodiments thereof, it is to be understood that the description is not to be construed as limiting the scope of the application. Various modifications and equivalents will become apparent to those skilled in the art upon reading the foregoing description. Accordingly, the scope of the application is to be determined by the following claims.

Claims

1. A wafer transfer chamber for storing a tray carrying a wafer, characterized by, The application relates to a wafer transfer chamber, comprising: a chamber provided with two wafer transfer ports, one of which is used for the wafer-carrying tray to enter and exit, and the other is used for taking out the wafer; a supporting assembly in the chamber, which is movably connected with the tray and used for placing the tray; the tray comprises a plurality of circular holes with an inner diameter larger than that of the wafer, and a wafer-carrying surface in the circular hole is in contact with the wafer; a wafer-taking assembly in the chamber, which is used for separating the wafer from the tray; the supporting assembly and / or the wafer-taking assembly can rotate and move along the vertical direction.

2. The wafer transfer chamber of claim 1, wherein, The supporting assembly can drive the tray to rotate, and the wafer-taking assembly can lift up along the vertical direction to separate the wafer from the tray from below.

3. The wafer transfer chamber of claim 2, wherein, The wafer-carrying surface is the upper surface of a circular ring fixedly connected with the side wall of the circular hole, and the wafer-taking assembly can contact the back surface of the wafer through the circular hole.

4. The wafer transfer chamber of claim 2, wherein, The tray comprises a plurality of grooves with a plurality of through holes below the wafer.

5. The wafer transfer chamber of claim 4, wherein, The through holes are vertically arranged on the tray, and a lifting pin is arranged in the through hole.

6. The wafer transfer chamber of claim 5, wherein, The top end of the wafer-taking assembly can push the lifting pin to move up and down along the through hole.

7. The wafer transfer chamber of claim 4, wherein, The top end of the wafer-taking assembly has a plurality of vertical top pins on the tray, which can be inserted into the through hole.

8. The wafer transfer chamber of claim 2, wherein, The supporting assembly comprises a supporting shaft connected with a rotating motor, and the top end of the supporting shaft is clamped with the tray.

9. The wafer transfer chamber of claim 1, wherein, The tray is circular, the supporting assembly can move along the vertical direction and rotate around the central axis of the tray.

10. The wafer transfer chamber of claim 9, wherein, The wafer-taking assembly comprises at least one wafer-taking column below the wafer.

11. The wafer transfer chamber of claim 1, wherein The tray is circular, the wafer-taking assembly comprises a wafer-taking column, and the wafer-taking column can rotate around the central axis of the tray.

12. A wafer deposition system, comprising: The application relates to a wafer transfer chamber, comprising: the wafer transfer chamber as claimed in any one of claims 1-11; a reaction chamber used for carrying out a deposition reaction on the wafer; a vacuum transfer chamber comprising a first mechanical arm used for taking out the tray from the reaction chamber; a storage chamber comprising a second mechanical arm used for taking out the wafer from the wafer transfer chamber and placing the wafer into a wafer box.

13. The deposition system of claim 12, wherein, The application further comprises a cooling chamber, and the first mechanical arm takes out the tray from the cooling chamber and places the tray into the wafer transfer chamber.

14. A wafer retrieval method characterized by, The application relates to a wafer transfer method, comprising the following steps: in the wafer transfer chamber as claimed in any one of claims 1-11, moving the wafer-taking assembly upward relative to the tray to separate part of the wafer from the tray; taking away the separated wafer, moving the wafer-taking assembly downward relative to the tray to the initial position; rotating the supporting assembly and / or the wafer-taking assembly to the next position, and repeating the above steps until all the wafers are separated from the tray and taken away.

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