Batch Substrate Loading Layout for Uniform Film Thickness
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Solution Overview
Problem
In semiconductor device manufacturing, batch processing of substrates with less than the maximum loadable number on a substrate holder results in non-uniform film thickness due to varying exposure amounts of process gases, leading to deteriorated film characteristics and surface area inconsistencies.
Innovation Solution
The substrates are dispersedly loaded across the substrate holder, with varying density distributions and the use of dummy substrates to adjust gas exposure, ensuring uniform film formation by controlling the gas supply through strategically placed nozzles and gas supply holes, and a controller to manage the loading pattern and gas flow.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If substrates are loaded densely on the substrate holder to maximize productivity, then the loading capacity is improved, but the film thickness uniformity deteriorates due to non-uniform gas exposure
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies local quality by creating different loading densities in different regions of the substrate holder. The controller disperses substrates to form a first region with higher loading density and a second region with lower loading density. This regional differentiation compensates for non-uniform gas exposure, ensuring that substrates in high-density regions receive sufficient gas flow while maintaining overall high loading capacity.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent changes the spatial distribution parameter of substrate loading from uniform to non-uniform. By controlling the transporter to place substrates in specific patterns with varying densities across different regions, the system optimizes gas flow distribution and achieves uniform film thickness while maintaining high productivity.
2Manufacturing precision
If substrates are dispersedly loaded to improve film thickness uniformity, then the manufacturing precision is improved, but the loading capacity decreases
Solution Approach 1:
Rather than uniformly dispersing substrates across the entire holder, the patent creates localized high-density regions surrounded by lower-density areas. This approach maintains high overall loading capacity while ensuring that no single region becomes so dense as to block gas flow, thus preserving film thickness uniformity.
3Manufacturing precision
If the gas supply is increased to compensate for blocked flow in densely loaded regions, then the film formation is improved, but the gas consumption and system complexity increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent performs preliminary action by pre-arranging substrates in optimized loading patterns before the film formation process begins. The controller calculates and executes the dispersed loading pattern in advance, eliminating the need for complex real-time gas flow adjustments during processing. This simplifies the gas supply system while ensuring uniform film formation.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
This approach enhances film thickness uniformity and controllability across substrates, improving processing uniformity and reducing variations in film characteristics, even when processing multiple substrates simultaneously.
Implementation Method 1
processing of forming a film on a substrate accommodated in a process chamber may be performed
Data Source
AI summary
To enable improvement in uniformity of film thickness between a plurality of substrates as compared with that of the related art in a case where the plurality of substrates is loaded in a boat and subjected to batch processing, a substrate processing apparatus is configured to include a process container capable of accommodating a substrate holder that holds substrates, a gas supplier that supplies a gas to the process container, an exhauster that exhausts an atmosphere in the process container, a transporter that transports the substrates, and a controller configured to be capable of controlling the transporter to dispersedly load the substrates from a central portion of a first region in a case where a number X of the substrates is smaller than a maximum loading number Y of the substrate holder, and the substrate holder includes, at the central portion, the first region where the dispersion loading is performed.