Heat treatment apparatus, heat treatment method, and storage medium

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10217652-B2
Application number	US-201514957985-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 3, 2015
Priority date	Dec 10, 2014
Publication date	Feb 26, 2019
Grant date	Feb 26, 2019

Abstract

Disclosed is a heat treatment apparatus for performing a heat treatment on a coating film formed on a substrate. The apparatus includes a placing unit provided within a processing container, and configured to place the substrate thereon; a heating unit configured to heat the substrate placed on the placing unit; a gas supply port provided along a circumferential direction outside the substrate on the placing unit in a plan view, and configured to supply gas into the processing container; an outer circumferential exhaust port provided along the circumferential direction outside the substrate on the placing unit in a plan view, and configured to exhaust an inside of the processing container; and a central exhaust port provided above a central portion of the substrate on the placing unit, and configured to exhaust the inside of the processing container.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A heat treatment apparatus for performing a heat treatment on a coating film formed on a substrate, the apparatus comprising:
a placing table provided within a processing container, and configured to place the substrate thereon;
a heater configured to heat the substrate placed on the placing table;
a top plate having a bottom surface which faces an upper surface of the placing table across a gap in the processing container, the top plate including:
a plurality of outer circumferential exhaust ports opened circumferentially along and radially within an edge portion of the bottom surface of the top plate, and configured to exhaust an inside of the processing container; and
a central exhaust port opened in a central portion at the bottom surface of the top plate such that a center of the central exhaust port coincides with a center of the substrate placed on the placing table, and configured to exhaust the inside of the processing container; and

a cylindrical shutter provided to surround the placing table and configured to block an entire circumference of the gap formed between the placing table and the top plate to form a processing space in the processing container, the cylindrical shutter including a gas supply port formed at equal intervals over an entire circumference of an inner circumferential surface of the cylindrical shutter and configured to supply gas into the processing space of the processing container, wherein the gas supply port is opened at a position lower than the substrate.

2. The heat treatment apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the outer circumferential exhaust port is opened at a position higher than the substrate, and
an air flow curtain is formed to surround the substrate by an air flow flowing from the gas supply port to the outer circumferential exhaust port.

3. The heat treatment apparatus of claim 2 , wherein the cylindrical shutter is configured to open/close a carry-in/out port that carries the substrate into/from the processing container, and
wherein the air flow curtain is formed closer to the substrate side than the cylindrical shutter.

4. The heat treatment apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the exhaust is performed at least from the outer circumferential exhaust port until a setting time point when a setting time has elapsed from a heating start time of the substrate or a setting time point when a temperature of the substrate exceeds a setting temperature, and the exhaust is performed at least from the central exhaust port after the setting time point.

5. The heat treatment apparatus of claim 4 , wherein the exhaust is performed by the outer circumferential exhaust port and the central exhaust port at the same time at least from the heating start time of the substrate to the setting time point.

6. The heat treatment apparatus of claim 4 , wherein the exhaust is performed by the outer circumferential exhaust port and the central exhaust port at the same time at least after the setting time point.

7. The heat treatment apparatus of claim 4 , wherein an exhaust amount of the central exhaust port is larger than an exhaust amount of the outer circumferential exhaust port at least after the setting time point.

8. The heat treatment apparatus of claim 4 , wherein at least one of the exhaust of the outer circumferential exhaust port and the exhaust of the central exhaust port is performed such that the exhaust amount increases or decreases with the lapse of time.

9. The heat treatment apparatus of claim 4 , wherein a crosslinking agent is contained in the coating film, and
the setting time point is a time point when a crosslinking reaction by the crosslinking agent is completed.

10. The heat treatment apparatus of claim 1 , further comprising:
an ejector connected to the central exhaust port through an exhaust path such that an exhaust flow is attracted by flow of a suction gas; and
a supply/stop mechanism configured to perform supply of the suction gas to the ejector or stop of the supply.

11. The heat treatment apparatus of claim 10 , further comprising:
a mechanism for heating the suction gas.

12. The heat treatment apparatus of claim 10 , wherein a discharge side of the ejector is connected to a downstream side exhaust path where exhaust is performed by an exhausting power usage,
a second ejector is provided such that its discharge side is connected to the downstream side exhaust path, and is configured to attract an atmosphere outside a flow path of the exhaust flow by the flow of the suction gas, and
when the supply of the suction gas is stopped by the supply/stop mechanism, the suction gas flows to the second ejector.

13. The heat treatment apparatus of claim 10 , wherein a pressure loss portion is provided between the central exhaust port and the ejector that attracts the exhaust flow, to suppress the exhaust from the central exhaust port when the supply of the suction gas is stopped in order to stop the attraction of the exhaust flow.

14. A method for performing a heat treatment on a coating film formed on a substrate using a heat treatment apparatus that includes a placing table provided within a processing container, a heater that heats the substrate, a top plate having a bottom surface facing an upper surface of the placing table with a gap between the placing table and the top plate, the method comprising:
providing a plurality of outer circumferential exhaust ports opened circumferentially along and radially within an edge portion of the bottom surface of the top plate and a central exhaust port opened in a central portion at the bottom surface of the top plate such that a center of the central exhaust port coincides with a center of the substrate placed on the placing table;
providing a cylindrical shutter to surround the placing table and configured to block an entire circumference of the gap to form a processing space in the processing container,
providing a gas supply port at equal intervals over an entire circumference of an inner circumferential surface of the cylindrical shutter and configured to supply gas into the processing space of the processing container, wherein the gas supply port is opened at a position lower than the substrate;
placing the substrate on the placing table provided in the processing container, and heating the substrate;
exhausting an inside of the processing container at least from the outer circumferential exhaust port, while introducing gas from the gas supply port, into the processing space of the processing container, until a setting time point when a setting time has elapsed from a heating start time of the substrate or a setting time point when a temperature of the substrate exceeds a setting temperature; and
exhausting the inside of the processing container at least from the central exhaust port, while introducing gas from the gas supply port into the processing space of the processing container, after the setting time point.

15. The method of claim 14 , wherein an air flow curtain directed either from a position higher than the substrate toward a position lower than the substrate or from the position lower than the substrate toward the position higher than the substrate is formed by the exhaust of the outer circumferential exhaust port to surround the substrate.

16. The method of claim 14 , wherein the exhaust is performed by the outer circumferential exhaust port and the central exhaust port at the same time at least from the heating start time of the substrate to the setting time point.

17. The method of claim 14 , wherein the exhaust is performed by the outer circ

Assignees

• Tokyo Electron Ltd

Inventors

• Mizuta Masato
• Kawaji Tatsuya
• Nakano Keigo

Classifications

• H10P14/6902

  composed of carbon, e.g. alpha-C, diamond or hydrogen doped carbon · CPC title

• H10P14/6516

  of treatments performed after formation of the materials · CPC title

• H10P14/6342

  Liquid deposition, e.g. spin-coating, sol-gel techniques or spray coating · CPC title

• H10P72/0462

  characterised by the construction of the processing chambers, e.g. modular processing chambers · CPC title

• H10P72/0432

  mainly by conduction · CPC title