Flow uniformizing structure, process chamber and semiconductor process equipment

By designing an adjustable uniform flow structure, including partition ring, intake uniform flow plate, exhaust uniform flow plate, annular baffle and driving mechanism, the problem of low gas utilization rate of semiconductor etching equipment in small-sized wafer processes is solved. , achieving more efficient gas utilization and flow field regulation.

CN119400677AActive Publication Date: 2025-02-07BEIJING NAURA MICROELECTRONICS EQUIP CO LTD

Patent Information

Application Number
CN202411546135.8
Authority / Receiving Office
CN · China
Patent Type
Applications(China)
Current Assignee / Owner
Filing Date
2024-10-31
Publication Date
2025-02-07
Estimated Expiration
2044-10-31

AI Technical Summary

Technical Problem

When existing semiconductor etching equipment switches to small-size wafer processes, the gas utilization rate is low and the flow field distribution cannot be effectively adjusted.

Method used

A uniform flow structure is designed, including a partition ring, an intake uniform flow plate, an exhaust uniform flow plate, an annular baffle and a driving mechanism. The annular baffle can move between the intake uniform plate and the outlet uniform plate, and is adjusted through the driving mechanism to adapt to the process needs of wafers of different sizes.

Benefits of technology

By adjusting the position of the annular baffle, the gas utilization rate during the small-sized wafer process can be effectively improved, the probability of gas being directly extracted without participating in the reaction, and the utilization rate of process gas can be improved.

✦ Generated by Eureka AI based on patent content.

Smart Images

  • Figure CN119400677A_ABST
    Figure CN119400677A_ABST
Patent Text Reader

Abstract

The invention discloses a flow uniformizing structure, a process chamber and semiconductor process equipment. The flow uniformizing structure comprises a spacer ring; the air inlet flow uniformizing plate is arranged on one end face, in the axial direction, of the spacer ring, and air inlet flow uniformizing holes are formed in the air inlet flow uniformizing plate; the air outlet flow uniformizing plate is arranged on the other end face of the distance ring in the axial direction, a first flow uniformizing cavity is defined by the air outlet flow uniformizing plate, the distance ring and the air inlet flow uniformizing plate, and a plurality of air outlet flow uniformizing holes are formed in the air outlet flow uniformizing plate; the annular baffle is arranged in the first flow uniformizing cavity, in the axial projection direction of the annular baffle, the projection of the air inlet flow uniformizing holes and the projection of part of the air outlet flow uniformizing holes are located in the inner ring of the annular baffle, and the projection of the other part of the air outlet flow uniformizing holes is located on the annular baffle; the driving mechanism is connected with the annular baffle and used for driving the annular baffle to move between the air inlet flow uniformizing plate and the air outlet flow uniformizing plate. Flow field distribution can be adjusted, and the utilization rate of process gas is increased.
Need to check novelty before this filing date? Find Prior Art

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The present application relates to the technical field of semiconductor manufacturing equipment, and in particular to a uniform flow structure, a process chamber and semiconductor process equipment. Background Art

[0002] In semiconductor etching equipment, after the process gas enters the process chamber, it flows through the flow-uniform holes on the flow-uniform plate to reach the process area. The flow-uniform holes can homogenize the process gas to improve the uniformity of etching.

[0003] Under this structure, the flow field distribution of the process gas is limited by the existing uniform flow hole design and cannot be adjusted. When performing small-size wafer processing, the gas utilization rate is low. Summary of the invention

[0004] In response to the above technical problems, the present application provides a uniform flow structure, a process chamber and a semiconductor process equipment, which can improve the problem of low gas utilization rate of the uniform flow plate of the existing process chamber when switching to the process of small-sized wafers.

[0005] In order to solve the above technical problems, in a first aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a uniform flow structure, including:

[0006] Spacer ring;

[0007] An air intake flow equalizer plate is arranged on one end surface of the spacer ring along the axial direction, and an air intake flow equalizer hole is arranged on the air intake flow equalizer plate;

[0008] An outlet flow equalizer plate is arranged on the other end face of the spacer ring along the axial direction, and forms a first flow equalizer cavity with the spacer ring and the inlet flow equalizer plate, and a plurality of outlet flow equalizer holes are arranged on the outlet flow equalizer plate;

[0009] an annular baffle, arranged in the first flow-uniform cavity, and along the axial projection direction of the annular baffle, the projection of the inlet flow-uniform hole and the projection of part of the outlet flow-uniform hole are located in the inner circle of the annular baffle, and the projection of another part of the outlet flow-uniform hole is located on the annular baffle;

[0010] A driving mechanism is connected to the annular baffle plate and is used to drive the annular baffle plate to move between the air inlet flow equalizer plate and the air outlet flow equalizer plate.

[0011] Optionally, a plurality of the air intake flow equalizing holes are provided and are evenly distributed on a circle with the center of the air intake flow equalizing plate as the center.

[0012] Optionally, the diameter of the air inlet uniform flow hole is 5 to 15 times the diameter of the air outlet uniform flow hole.

[0013] Optionally, the air inlet uniform flow plate is provided with a central heating zone and at least one annular heating zone;

[0014] The central heating zone is arranged concentrically with the circle, and the at least one annular heating zone sequentially surrounds the outer side of the central heating zone.

[0015] Optionally, the heating temperatures of the central heating zone and the at least one annular heating zone are set to increase in sequence from the center to the edge of the air intake uniform flow plate.

[0016] Optionally, the plurality of outlet flow equalizing holes are evenly distributed on the outlet flow equalizing plate, and along the axial projection direction of the annular baffle, the outlet flow equalizing holes projected within the inner circle of the annular baffle include:

[0017] A plurality of first flow-distributing holes projected at the inner center of the annular baffle and a plurality of second flow-distributing holes located at the edge of the annular baffle, wherein the diameter of the first flow-distributing holes is greater than the diameter of the second flow-distributing holes; and / or,

[0018] The diameter of the second flow-uniform hole is equal to the diameter of the outlet flow-uniform hole projected on the annular baffle.

[0019] Optionally, the driving mechanism includes:

[0020] A guide rod, which can movably pass through the air intake flow equalizer and is connected to the annular baffle;

[0021] A driving source is connected to the guide rod and is used to drive the guide rod to drive the annular baffle to move between the air inlet flow equalizer plate and the air outlet flow equalizer plate.

[0022] In a second aspect, the embodiments of the present application further provide a process chamber, comprising the uniform flow structure as described in the above embodiments, and:

[0023] The chamber body is open at the top;

[0024] An upper cover, covering the opening, and an air inlet is provided on the upper cover;

[0025] The air intake flow equalizer plate is arranged below the upper cover and forms a second flow equalizer cavity between the air intake equalizer plate and the upper cover;

[0026] The outlet air flow equalizer plate is arranged at the bottom of the inlet air flow equalizer plate;

[0027] The air inlet is communicated with the second flow-uniform chamber.

[0028] Optionally, a supporting step is provided on the inner wall of the chamber body near the opening;

[0029] The process chamber further comprises an annular mounting seat, the outer wall of which is provided with a first flange matched with the supporting step, the annular mounting seat is supported on the supporting step, and the top surface of the annular mounting seat does not exceed the top surface of the chamber body;

[0030] The inner wall of the annular mounting seat is provided with a second flange, and the air outlet flow equalizer plate is supported on the second flange;

[0031] The air intake flow equalizer plate, the upper cover and the inner wall of the annular mounting seat form the second flow equalizer cavity.

[0032] In a third aspect, an embodiment of the present application further provides a semiconductor process equipment, including a plasma generating device and a process chamber as described in the above embodiments;

[0033] The plasma generating device is connected to the gas inlet and is used for inputting process gas into the process chamber.

[0034] As described above, the uniform flow structure of the present application includes an air inlet uniform flow plate, an air outlet uniform flow plate, an annular baffle and a driving mechanism. Under the action of the driving mechanism, the annular baffle can move between the air inlet uniform flow plate and the air outlet uniform flow plate. When a large-sized wafer is processed, the driving mechanism can drive the annular baffle to move to the surface of the air inlet uniform flow plate. Since the air inlet uniform flow hole is exposed in the inner circle of the annular baffle, no matter which position the annular baffle moves to, the gas can be normally input into the first uniform flow chamber through the air inlet uniform flow hole of the air inlet uniform flow plate. At this time, all the air outlet uniform flow holes of the air outlet uniform flow plate are connected to the first uniform flow chamber, so that large-sized wafers can be processed. When a small-sized wafer is processed, the driving mechanism can drive the annular baffle to move to the surface of the air outlet uniform flow plate to block the air outlet uniform flow holes at the edge of the air outlet uniform flow plate to prevent the process gas at the edge from being directly drawn away without participating in the reaction. Therefore, the uniform flow structure of the present application can adjust the flow field distribution so that it can be accurately compatible with the processes of large-size wafers and small-size wafers, and can greatly reduce the probability of process gases being directly extracted without reaction when performing processes on small-size wafers, thereby improving the utilization rate of process gases. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0035] The drawings herein are incorporated into the specification and constitute a part of the specification, illustrate embodiments consistent with the present application, and are used together with the specification to explain the principles of the present application. In order to more clearly illustrate the technical solutions of the embodiments of the present application, the drawings required for use in the description of the embodiments are briefly introduced below. Obviously, for ordinary technicians in this field, other drawings can be obtained based on these drawings without creative labor.

[0036] Figure 1It is a structural schematic diagram of a process chamber of the related technology;

[0037] Figure 2 is a schematic structural diagram of a process chamber provided in an embodiment of the present application;

[0038] Figure 3 It is a structural schematic diagram of an air intake uniform flow plate provided in an embodiment of the present application;

[0039] Figure 4 It is a structural schematic diagram of an air outlet uniform flow plate provided in an embodiment of the present application;

[0040] Figure 5 is a schematic diagram of the structure of an annular baffle provided in an embodiment of the present application, wherein (a) is a front view and (b) is a bottom view;

[0041] Figure 6 It is a schematic diagram of an air intake flow equalizer and an annular baffle overlapping in the axial direction provided in an embodiment of the present application;

[0042] Figure 7 This is a schematic diagram of an air outlet uniform flow plate and an annular baffle overlapping in the axial direction provided in an embodiment of the present application;

[0043] Figure 8 It is a structural schematic diagram of a flow equalizer plate in the related technology;

[0044] Fig. 9 yes Figure 8 The flow field and oxygen free radical distribution cloud diagram corresponding to the uniform flow plate;

[0045] Fig.10 is a schematic structural diagram of another process chamber in the related art;

[0046] Fig.11 It is a flow field and oxygen free radical distribution cloud diagram corresponding to a uniform flow structure provided in an embodiment of the present application;

[0047] Fig.12 It is a structural schematic diagram of a semiconductor process equipment provided by an embodiment of the present application;

[0048] The realization of the purpose, functional features and advantages of this application will be further described in conjunction with the embodiments and with reference to the accompanying drawings. The above-mentioned drawings have shown clear embodiments of this application, which will be described in more detail later. These drawings and textual descriptions are not intended to limit the scope of the concept of this application in any way, but to illustrate the concept of this application to those skilled in the art by referring to specific embodiments. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0049] Exemplary embodiments will be described in detail herein, examples of which are shown in the accompanying drawings. When the following description refers to the drawings, the same numbers in different drawings represent the same or similar elements unless otherwise indicated. The implementations described in the following exemplary embodiments do not represent all implementations consistent with the present application. Instead, they are merely examples of devices and methods consistent with some aspects of the present application as detailed in the appended claims.

[0050] It should be noted that, in this article, the terms "include", "comprises" or any other variants thereof are intended to cover non-exclusive inclusion, so that a process, method, article or device including a series of elements includes not only those elements, but also includes other elements not explicitly listed, or also includes elements inherent to such process, method, article or device. In the absence of further restrictions, an element defined by the sentence "includes a ..." does not exclude the existence of other identical elements in the process, method, article or device including the element. In addition, components, features, and elements with the same name in different embodiments of the present application may have the same meaning or different meanings, and their specific meanings need to be determined by their explanation in the specific embodiment or further combined with the context of the specific embodiment.

[0051] It should be further understood that the terms "comprising" and "including" indicate the presence of the described features, steps, operations, elements, components, items, kinds, and / or groups, but do not exclude the presence, occurrence or addition of one or more other features, steps, operations, elements, components, items, kinds, and / or groups. The terms "or", "and / or", "including at least one of the following", etc. used in this application may be interpreted as inclusive, or mean any one or any combination. For example, "including at least one of the following: A, B, C" means "any one of the following: A; B; C; A and B; A and C; B and C; A and B and C", and for another example, "A, B or C" or "A, B and / or C" means "any one of the following: A; B; C; A and B; A and C; B and C; A and B and C". Exceptions to this definition will only occur when the combination of elements, functions, steps or operations is inherently mutually exclusive in some way.

[0052] It should be understood that although the terms first, second, third, etc. may be used herein to describe various information, such information should not be limited to these terms. These terms are only used to distinguish information of the same type from each other. For example, without departing from the scope of this document, the first information may also be referred to as the second information, and similarly, the second information may also be referred to as the first information. Depending on the context, as used herein, the singular forms "a", "an", and "the" are intended to include the plural forms as well, unless otherwise indicated in the context.

[0053] It should be understood that the orientations or positional relationships indicated by terms such as "top", "bottom", "up", "down", "vertical", and "horizontal" are based on the orientations or positional relationships shown in the accompanying drawings and are only for the convenience of describing the present application and simplifying the description. They do not indicate or imply that the device referred to must have a specific orientation, be constructed and operated in a specific orientation, and therefore should not be understood as a limitation on the present application.

[0054] For ease of description, in the following embodiments, orthogonal spaces determined by horizontal planes and vertical directions are used as examples for illustration, and this premise should not be construed as a limitation to the present application.

[0055] See also Figure 1 , Figure 1 It is a structural schematic diagram of a process chamber of the related technology. The process gas enters the chamber from the upper cover 10a, and reaches the surface of the wafer 101a located on the lifting base 30a after flowing through the flow holes 21a on the flow plate 20a, so as to etch the wafer. The figure takes an 8-inch wafer as an example, but when performing the process of a 6-inch wafer, the flow field distribution of the process gas is limited by the existing flow hole design, and the gas at the edge is extracted without being fully utilized, resulting in low gas utilization. Based on this, the present application provides a flow structure, a process chamber and semiconductor process equipment.

[0056] See also Figure 2 , Figure 2 It is a structural schematic diagram of a process chamber provided in an embodiment of the present application. The uniform flow structure may include a spacer ring 10, an air inlet uniform flow plate 20, an air outlet uniform flow plate 30, an annular baffle 40 and a driving mechanism 50.

[0057] In combination with the actual application scenario, the axial direction of the spacer ring 10 is defined as the vertical direction, and the two end faces of the spacer ring 10 along the axial direction are arranged opposite to each other in the vertical direction. The air inlet flow equalizer plate 20 is arranged on one end face (i.e., the upper end face) of the spacer ring 10, and the air inlet flow equalizer plate 20 is provided with an air inlet flow hole 21. The air inlet flow equalizer hole 21 can be provided with one or more, and this embodiment is not particularly limited. The air outlet flow equalizer plate 30 is arranged on the other end face (i.e., the lower end face) of the spacer ring 10, and forms a first flow equalizer cavity 110 with the spacer ring 10 and the air inlet flow equalizer plate 20, and a plurality of air outlet flow equalizer holes 31 are provided on the air outlet flow equalizer plate 30. It should be noted that the air inlet flow plate 20, the spacer ring 10 and the air outlet flow plate 30 can be separate components that are assembled to form the first flow chamber 110, or the two of them can be an integrated structure, for example, the spacer ring 10 and the air inlet flow plate 20 are integrally formed, or the spacer ring 10 and the air outlet flow plate 30 are integrally formed, etc.

[0058] Please also see Figure 3-Figure 7 , Figure 3 is a structural schematic diagram of an air intake uniform flow plate provided in an embodiment of the present application, Figure 4is a schematic diagram of the structure of an outlet flow equalizer provided in an embodiment of the present application, Figure 5 : is a schematic diagram of the structure of an annular baffle provided in an embodiment of the present application, wherein (a) is a front view, (b) is a bottom view, Figure 6 1 is a schematic diagram of an air intake flow equalizer and an annular baffle overlapped in the axial direction provided in an embodiment of the present application. Figure 7 It is a schematic diagram of the overlap of an outlet flow equalizer plate and an annular baffle plate in the axial direction provided in an embodiment of the present application. The annular baffle plate 40 is arranged in the first flow equalizer chamber 110, and along the axial projection direction of the annular baffle plate 40, the projection of the air inlet flow equalizer hole 21 and the projection of part of the air outlet flow equalizer hole 31A are located in the inner circle of the annular baffle plate 40, and the projection of another part of the air outlet flow equalizer hole 31B is located on the annular baffle plate 40. In other words, along the axial direction of the annular baffle plate 40, the air inlet flow equalizer hole 21 and the air outlet flow equalizer hole 31A near the center are exposed to the inner circle of the annular baffle plate 40, and the air outlet flow equalizer hole 31B near the edge is blocked by the annular baffle plate 40. The driving mechanism 50 is connected to the annular baffle plate 40, and is used to drive the annular baffle plate 40 to move between the air inlet flow equalizer plate 20 and the air outlet flow equalizer plate 30.

[0059] The working principle of the flow distribution structure of this embodiment is as follows: Figure 2 , the gas enters the first flow chamber 110 from the gas flow hole 21 of the gas flow plate 20, and then flows out from the gas flow hole 31 of the gas flow plate 30 to the process area for processing. When processing a large-size wafer 101 (e.g., 8 inches), the driving mechanism 50 can drive the annular baffle 40 to move to the surface of the gas flow plate 20 ( Figure 2 The bottom surface of the inlet flow plate 20 is exposed to the inner circle of the annular baffle 40. Therefore, no matter which position the annular baffle 40 moves to, the gas can be normally input into the first flow chamber 110 through the inlet flow holes 21 of the inlet flow plate 20. At this time, all the outlet flow holes 31 of the outlet flow plate 30 are connected to the first flow chamber 110, so the large-sized wafer 101 can be processed. When the small-sized wafer 102 is processed, the driving mechanism 50 can drive the annular baffle 40 to move to the surface of the outlet flow plate 30 ( Figure 2 The top surface of the middle gas outlet uniform flow plate 30 is covered to block the gas outlet uniform flow holes 31B at the edge of the gas outlet uniform flow plate 30 to prevent the process gas at the edge from being directly drawn away without participating in the reaction, thereby improving the utilization rate of the process gas.

[0060] It is understandable that the inner diameter and outer diameter of the annular baffle 40 can be set according to the size of the small-sized wafer and the large-sized wafer, for example, the inner diameter is slightly larger than the diameter of the small-sized wafer, and the outer diameter is slightly larger than the diameter of the large-sized wafer, and can block the outlet uniform flow hole 31B at the edge of the outlet uniform flow plate 30. The uniform flow structure of this embodiment can adjust the flow field distribution, so that it can accurately be compatible with the processes of large-sized wafers and small-sized wafers, and can greatly reduce the probability of the process gas being directly extracted without reaction when the process of the small-sized wafer is carried out, thereby improving the utilization rate of the process gas.

[0061] In this embodiment, the specific structure of the inlet flow plate 20 and the outlet flow plate 30 is not particularly limited, and the flow plate of the existing mature technology can be used. Figure 1 and Figure 8 , Figure 8 This is a schematic diagram of the structure of a flow plate in the related art. The diameter of the flow holes 21a on the flow plate 20a increases radially, that is, the hole diameter in the center is small and the hole diameter at the edge is large. This arrangement can improve the uniformity of the airflow inside the chamber, but it will make the flow field speed in the center of the wafer slow. 2 +O 2 For example, see Fig. 9 , Fig. 9 yes Figure 8 The flow field and oxygen radical distribution cloud diagram corresponding to the uniform flow plate. The process gas enters from the center, and the concentration of oxygen (O) radicals in the center of the uniform flow plate 20a is high. O radicals will accumulate in the center of the wafer, resulting in too fast a degumming rate in the center, poor uniformity, and prone to failure phenomena such as pits.

[0062] Based on this, please continue to refer to Figure 6 As an improved example, a plurality of air intake equalizing holes 21 may be provided on the air intake equalizing plate 20 and evenly distributed on a circle with the center of the air intake equalizing plate 20 as the center. Figure 6 There are 6 middle air inlet holes 21. By eccentrically setting the air inlet holes 21, it is possible to prevent too many O radicals from entering the first flow chamber 110 from the center and then directly entering the center of the process chamber through the outlet flow plate 30, thereby reducing the degumming rate at the center of the wafer and improving etching uniformity.

[0063] See also Fig.10 , Fig.10This is a schematic diagram of the structure of another process chamber of the related art, in which the uniform flow structure includes an upper uniform flow plate 11b and a lower uniform flow plate 12b. Both the upper uniform flow plate 11b and the lower uniform flow plate 12b adopt a structure with multiple small holes, and the upper and lower uniform flow holes are arranged in a staggered manner to adjust the flow field distribution inside the chamber. By setting up a double uniform flow plate, a more uniform flow field can be obtained at the outlet end of the lower uniform flow plate 12b. However, this structure will cause the flow rate of the process gas to decrease, and the number of O free radicals passing through will also decrease accordingly, which will cause the overall degumming rate to decrease.

[0064] Based on this, please continue to refer to Figure 3 , Figure 4 and Figure 7 As an improved example, the diameter D1 of the air inlet flow hole 21 can be set to be larger than the diameter D2 of the air outlet flow hole 31. Preferably, D1 = (5-15) D2. For example, D1 = 15-25 mm, D2 = 1 mm, 1.5 mm, 2 mm, 3 mm, etc. By setting a larger air inlet flow hole 21, it can be ensured that sufficient process gas is input to improve the overall degumming rate. If the diameter D1 of the air inlet flow hole 21 is set too small, the flow rate will be reduced, and the amount of gas passing through will be reduced, so the degumming rate cannot be increased; if D1 is too large, the number of air inlet flow holes 21 that can be set on the air inlet flow hole 21 will be reduced, and the flow uniformity effect will be reduced. Through reasonable aperture setting, this embodiment can achieve a better balance between degumming rate and flow uniformity effect.

[0065] In one embodiment, see Figure 7 The outlet flow holes 31 are evenly distributed on the outlet flow plate 30. For example, they can be as follows: Figure 7 The rectangular array distribution shown can also be evenly distributed in a circular, polygonal, or other manner. Along the axial projection direction of the annular baffle 40, the outlet flow holes 31A projected in the inner circle of the annular baffle 40 can include a plurality of first flow holes 311 and a plurality of second flow holes 312. The projection of the first flow hole 311 is located at the center of the inner circle of the annular baffle 40, and the projection of the second flow hole 312 is located at the edge of the annular baffle 40. The diameter of the first flow hole 311 is greater than the diameter of the second flow hole 312. That is, among the outlet flow holes 31A exposed in the inner circle of the annular baffle 40, the diameter of the first flow hole 311 disposed near the center of the outlet flow plate 30 is greater than the diameter of the second flow hole 312 disposed near the edge of the outlet flow plate 30. Exemplarily, the diameter of the outlet flow hole 31B projected on the annular baffle 40 can be equal to the diameter of the second flow hole 312 to improve the uniformity of the flow field at the edge.

[0066] The gas outlet flow plate 30 of this embodiment adopts densely and evenly distributed gas outlet flow holes 31, which can effectively improve the uniformity of the flow field in the process chamber; because the edge of the wafer is closer to the exhaust port, the gas outlet flow holes 31A projected in the inner circle of the annular baffle 40 adopt a distribution method of large inside and small outside, which can prevent excessive gas from directly entering the chamber through the edge of the gas outlet flow hole 31 and being directly extracted, resulting in low utilization rate; at the same time, increasing the diameter of the central gas outlet flow hole 31 is conducive to improving the flow field velocity in the central area above the wafer, avoiding excessive accumulation of O free radicals in the central area of ​​the wafer, and improving the uniformity of O free radical distribution above the wafer.

[0067] In addition, due to the limitation of the RF source structure of the ignition chamber, the plasma mainly bombards the air inlet uniform flow plate 20 from the center, which will cause the center temperature of the air inlet uniform flow plate 20 to be significantly higher than the edge temperature, making the center temperature of the O free radicals above the wafer high and the edge temperature low, which will also cause the degumming rate in the center of the wafer to be too fast, the uniformity to deteriorate, and the pit failure phenomenon to occur.

[0068] Based on this, please continue to refer to Figure 3 and Figure 6 As an improved example, the air intake equalizer plate 20 is provided with a central heating zone 22 and at least one annular heating zone. The central heating zone 22 is concentrically arranged with the air intake equalizer plate 20, and the annular heating zones are sequentially surrounded by the outer side of the central heating zone 22. In the figure, two annular heating zones 23A and 23B are set as an example, wherein the dotted line is the dividing line between the zones. In other embodiments, only one or more than three annular heating zones may be set. As an example, resistance wires may be set in the areas corresponding to the heating zones inside the air intake equalizer plate 20, and heating and temperature control may be performed separately to compensate for the uneven temperature from the center to the edge of the air intake equalizer plate 20. For example, from the center to the edge of the air intake equalizer plate 20, the heating temperature settings of the central heating zone 22 and all the annular heating zones 23 are sequentially increased. For example, the temperature setting of the central heating zone 22 may be 80-100°C, the temperature setting of the middle annular heating zone 23A may be 100-120°C, and the temperature setting of the edge annular heating zone 23B may be 120-140°C.

[0069] See also Fig.11 , Fig.11 : is a flow field and oxygen free radical distribution cloud diagram corresponding to a uniform flow structure provided in an embodiment of the present application, wherein the inlet uniform flow plate 20, the outlet uniform flow plate 30, and the annular baffle 40 are respectively as shown in FIG. Figure 3-5As shown, the process for 8-inch wafers is simulated, the annular baffle 40 rises to the bottom surface of the air inlet flow plate 20, the aperture of the air inlet flow hole 21 of the air inlet flow plate 20 is 20mm, and the diameter of the pitch circle tangent to the air inlet flow hole 21 is 100mm; the aperture of the air outlet flow hole 31 (first flow hole 311) in the center of the air outlet flow plate 30 is 3mm, the aperture of the air outlet flow hole 31 at the edge (second flow hole 312 and the second flow hole 312 blocked by the annular baffle 40) is 2mm, and the diameter of the boundary circle between the large flow hole and the small flow hole is 100mm. Fig. 9 and Fig.11 It can be seen that the flow field distribution and O radical distribution of the uniform flow structure of the present application are more uniform, thereby improving the uniformity of degumming.

[0070] In one embodiment, please refer to Figure 2 and Figure 5 , the driving mechanism 50 may include a guide rod 51 and a driving source 52. The guide rod 51 can movably pass through the air inlet equalizer plate 20 and be connected to the annular baffle 40. For example, a connecting hole 41 can be set on the annular baffle 40, and the guide rod 51 is connected to the connecting hole 41. Two or more groups of guide rods 51 can be set accordingly to improve the stability of the driving mechanism. The driving source 52 is connected to the guide rod 51, and is used to drive the guide rod 51 to drive the annular baffle 40 to move between the air inlet equalizer plate 20 and the air outlet equalizer plate 30, so that it can switch between covering and opening the air outlet equalizer hole 31 at the edge of the air outlet equalizer plate 30 to adapt to the process of wafers of different sizes, and the process gas utilization rate is high.

[0071] The present application also provides a process chamber. Figure 2 and Fig.12 , Fig.12 It is a structural schematic diagram of a semiconductor process equipment provided by an embodiment of the present application. In the semiconductor process equipment, the process chamber may include a flow-uniform structure 100, a chamber body 200 and an upper cover 300 as described in the above embodiments. The top of the chamber body 200 is open, and the upper cover 300 is sealed at the open 210. An air inlet 310 is provided on the upper cover 300, and a nozzle may be provided at the air inlet 310 to connect the gas source. The air inlet uniform flow plate 20 of the flow-uniform structure 100 is arranged below the upper cover 300, and a second flow-uniform cavity 120 is formed between the upper cover 300 and the air outlet uniform flow plate 30 is arranged at the bottom of the air inlet uniform flow plate 20, and the air inlet 310 of the upper cover 300 is connected to the second flow-uniform cavity 120.

[0072] In one embodiment, please refer to Fig.12The inner wall of the chamber body 200 is provided with a support step 220 near the opening, and the process chamber also includes an annular mounting seat 400. The outer wall of the annular mounting seat 400 is provided with a first flange 410 that cooperates with the support step 220. The annular mounting seat 400 is supported on the support step 220, and the top surface does not exceed the top surface of the chamber body 200. For example, the top surfaces of the two can be flush. The inner wall of the annular mounting seat 400 is provided with a second flange 420, and the outlet air flow plate 30 is supported on the second flange 420. The inlet air flow plate 20, the upper cover 300 and the inner wall of the annular mounting seat 400 surround the second flow chamber 120.

[0073] The present application also provides a semiconductor process equipment. Fig.12 The semiconductor process equipment may include a plasma generator 500 and a process chamber as described in the above embodiments. The plasma generator 500 is connected to the gas inlet 310 for inputting process gas into the process chamber. The plasma generator 500 may dissociate the process gas outside the process chamber to form a remote plasma source.

[0074] For other working principles and processes of the process chamber and semiconductor process equipment of this embodiment, please refer to the description of the uniform flow structure in the above-mentioned embodiment of the present invention, which will not be repeated here.

[0075] The above is a detailed introduction to a uniform flow structure, a process chamber and a semiconductor process equipment provided by the present application. This article uses specific examples to illustrate the principles and implementation methods of the present application. It should be noted that in the present application, the description of each embodiment has its own emphasis. For parts that are not described or recorded in detail in a certain embodiment, please refer to the relevant description of other embodiments.

[0076] The above are only preferred embodiments of the present application, and the patent scope of the present application is not limited thereto. The various technical features of the technical solution of the present application can be arbitrarily combined. In order to make the description concise, not all possible combinations of the various technical features in the above embodiments are described. Any equivalent structure or equivalent process transformation made using the contents of the specification and drawings of this application, or directly or indirectly used in other related technical fields, as long as there is no contradiction in the combination of these technical features, are equally included in the patent protection scope of the present application.

Claims

1. A flow-uniform structure, characterized in that: include: Spacer ring; An air intake flow equalizer plate is arranged on one end surface of the spacer ring along the axial direction, and an air intake flow equalizer hole is arranged on the air intake flow equalizer plate; An outlet flow equalizer plate is arranged on the other end face of the spacer ring along the axial direction, and forms a first flow equalizer cavity with the spacer ring and the inlet flow equalizer plate, and a plurality of outlet flow equalizer holes are arranged on the outlet flow equalizer plate; an annular baffle, arranged in the first flow-uniform cavity, and along the axial projection direction of the annular baffle, the projection of the inlet flow-uniform hole and the projection of part of the outlet flow-uniform hole are located in the inner circle of the annular baffle, and the projection of another part of the outlet flow-uniform hole is located on the annular baffle; A driving mechanism is connected to the annular baffle plate and is used to drive the annular baffle plate to move between the air inlet flow equalizer plate and the air outlet flow equalizer plate.

2. The flow uniformity structure according to claim 1, characterized in that: The air intake flow equalizing holes are provided in plurality and are evenly distributed on a circle with the center of the air intake flow equalizing plate as the center.

3. The flow-uniform structure according to claim 2, characterized in that: The diameter of the air inlet uniform flow hole is 5 to 15 times the diameter of the air outlet uniform flow hole.

4. The flow-uniform structure according to claim 2, characterized in that: The air inlet uniform flow plate is provided with a central heating zone and at least one annular heating zone; The central heating zone is arranged concentrically with the circle, and the at least one annular heating zone sequentially surrounds the outer side of the central heating zone.

5. The flow uniformity structure according to claim 4, characterized in that: From the center to the edge of the air intake uniform flow plate, the heating temperature settings of the central heating zone and the at least one annular heating zone are increased in sequence.

6. The flow uniformity structure according to claim 1, characterized in that: The plurality of outlet flow equalizing holes are evenly distributed on the outlet flow equalizing plate, and the outlet flow equalizing holes projected in the inner circle of the annular baffle along the axial projection direction of the annular baffle include: A plurality of first flow-distributing holes projected at the inner center of the annular baffle and a plurality of second flow-distributing holes located at the edge of the annular baffle, wherein the diameter of the first flow-distributing holes is greater than the diameter of the second flow-distributing holes; and / or, The diameter of the second flow-uniform hole is equal to the diameter of the outlet flow-uniform hole projected on the annular baffle.

7. The flow uniformity structure according to claim 1, characterized in that: The driving mechanism comprises: A guide rod, which can movably pass through the air intake flow equalizer and is connected to the annular baffle; A driving source is connected to the guide rod and is used to drive the guide rod to drive the annular baffle to move between the air inlet flow equalizer plate and the air outlet flow equalizer plate.

8. A process chamber, characterized in that: The invention comprises the flow-uniform structure according to any one of claims 1 to 7, and The chamber body is open at the top; An upper cover, covering the opening, and an air inlet is provided on the upper cover; The air intake flow equalizer is arranged at the bottom of the upper cover, and forms a second flow equalizer cavity between the air intake equalizer and the upper cover; The outlet flow plate is arranged below the inlet flow plate; The air inlet is communicated with the second flow-uniform chamber.

9. The process chamber according to claim 8, characterized in that: The inner wall of the chamber body is provided with a supporting step near the opening; The process chamber further comprises an annular mounting seat, the outer wall of which is provided with a first flange matched with the supporting step, the annular mounting seat is supported on the supporting step, and the top surface of the annular mounting seat does not exceed the top surface of the chamber body; The inner wall of the annular mounting seat is provided with a second flange, and the air outlet flow equalizer plate is supported on the second flange; The air intake flow equalizer plate, the upper cover and the inner wall of the annular mounting seat form the second flow equalizer cavity.

10. A semiconductor process equipment, characterized in that: A process chamber comprising a plasma generating device and a process chamber according to claim 8 or 9; The plasma generating device is connected to the gas inlet and is used for inputting process gas into the process chamber.

Citation Information

Patent Citations

  • Semiconductor process equipment and air inlet mechanism thereof

    CN112863990A

  • Substrate processing apparatus and cleaning method therefor

    CN1638026A

  • Shower head of a wafer treatment apparatus having a gap controller

    CN1781608A

  • Plasma processing apparatus

    JP2022006424A

  • A baffle assembly and an apparatus for treating a substrate with the baffle

    KR101939225B1

Cited By

  • Flow homogenizing structure, process chamber, and semiconductor process device

    WO2026092350A1