Substrate processing apparatus and non-transitory computer-readable recording medium

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11761087-B2
Application number	US-201916425652-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	May 29, 2019
Priority date	Nov 30, 2016
Publication date	Sep 19, 2023
Grant date	Sep 19, 2023

Abstract

According to one aspect of the technique of the present disclosure, there is provided a substrate processing apparatus including: a heater heating a substrate in a reaction tube; a temperature controller controlling the heater; a valve controller adjusting an opening degree of a control valve to adjust a gas flow rate; and a main controller instructing a recipe including: (a) elevating an inner temperature of the reaction tube to a predetermined temperature at an elevating rate; (b) processing the substrate at the predetermined temperature; and (c) lowering the inner temperature of the reaction tube at a lowering rate. The main controller controls the temperature controller and the valve controller so that the inner temperature of the reaction tube changes in (a) or (c) at the elevating or lowering rate by heating in parallel with cooling by the gas supplied through the control valve.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A substrate processing apparatus comprising:
a heater configured to heat a substrate placed on a boat accommodated in a reaction tube;
a temperature controller configured to control the heater such that the substrate is maintained at a predetermined temperature while an operation amount (Z) outputted to the heater is being calculated;
a valve controller configured to adjust an opening degree of a control valve to adjust a flow rate of a gas supplied toward the reaction tube; and
a main controller configured to control the temperature controller and the valve controller to execute a recipe comprising the steps of: (a) elevating an inner temperature of the reaction tube to the predetermined temperature at a predetermined temperature elevating rate; (b) processing the substrate at the predetermined temperature by the heater; and (c) lowering the inner temperature of the reaction tube from the predetermined temperature at a predetermined temperature lowering rate,
wherein the valve controller comprises: a subtractor configured to calculate a deviation (Zd) by subtracting the operation amount (Z) from a power setting value (Zs) set by the main controller; and an opening degree converter configured to calculate an opening degree (X′) based on an operation result obtained by performing a proportional derivative operation using the deviation (Zd), and
wherein the opening degree (X′) based on the operation result is controlled such that the deviation (Zd) becomes zero.

2. The substrate processing apparatus of claim 1 , further comprising:
a heat insulating structure provided on an inner side of the heater and divided into a plurality of cooling zones; and
wherein the control valve is provided at each of the plurality of cooling zones, and the opening degree of the control valve of each of the plurality of cooling zones is controlled independently according to the plurality of cooling zones.

3. The substrate processing apparatus of claim 2 , wherein the heater comprises a plurality of control zones, and number of the control zones is equal to number of the cooling zones.

4. The substrate processing apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the main controller is further configured to control the temperature controller and the valve controller so as to shorten a duration of time for an overshoot generated during a transition from step (a) to step (b) to be stabilized to the predetermined temperature.

5. The substrate processing apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the main controller is further configured to control the valve controller so as to shorten a time duration of step (c) by performing a cooling by the gas supplied through the control valve.

6. The substrate processing apparatus of claim 3 , further comprises a plurality of thermocouples provided respectively in the plurality of control zones,
wherein the main controller is further configured to control the temperature controller and the valve controller such that a temperature deviation between a first temperature detected by a thermocouple configured to detect a temperature of a reference zone selected among the plurality of control zones and a second temperature detected by a thermocouple provided among the plurality of the control zones other than the reference zone is equal to zero.

7. The substrate processing apparatus of claim 6 , wherein the temperature controller is further configured to control the control valve such that a deviation between the first temperature and a reference setting value calculated based on a previous setting value of the main controller is zero.

8. The substrate processing apparatus of claim 5 , wherein the main controller is further configured to control the temperature controller and the valve controller so as to shorten a duration of time for an overshoot generated during a transition from step (a) to step (b) to be stabilized to the predetermined temperature.

9. The substrate processing apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the main controller is further configured to control the valve controller so as to stop a supply of the gas supplied through the control valve before the inner temperature of the reaction tube reaches the predetermined temperature in step (a).

10. The substrate processing apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the recipe further includes loading the boat accommodating a plurality of substrates comprising the substrate into the reaction tube, and
the main controller is further configured to control the temperature controller and the valve controller so as to shorten a time duration of a temperature overshoot generated during the loading of the boat into the reaction tube.

11. The substrate processing apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the main controller is further configured to control the valve controller such that a deviation between a temperature of a reference zone and a temperature of a zone other than the reference zone is zero by continuously controlling the opening degree of the control valve while performing the heating by the heater in parallel with the cooling by the gas supplied through the control valve.

12. The substrate processing apparatus of claim 11 , wherein the valve controller is further configured to continuously control the opening degree of the control valve according to a PID control by inputting a deviation between the temperature of the reference zone and a reference setting value calculated based on a previous setting value of the main controller while performing the heating by the heater in parallel with the cooling by the gas supplied through the control valve.

13. The substrate processing apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the main controller is further configured to control the temperature controller and the valve controller so that a heating by the heater is performed in parallel with a cooling by the gas supplied through the control valve.

14. The substrate processing apparatus of claim 2 , wherein the heat insulating structure comprises:
a plurality of opening holes where through the gas is ejected to the reaction tube;
an exhaust pipe;
a plurality of inlet pipes respectively provided at the plurality of cooling zones; and
a ring-shaped buffer part configured to temporarily store therein the gas supplied through the plurality of inlet pipes.

15. The substrate processing apparatus of claim 14 , wherein the main controller is further configured to open or close the control valve to control a flow rate and a flow velocity of the gas ejected to the reaction tube through the plurality of opening holes.

16. The substrate processing apparatus of claim 14 , wherein each of the plurality of inlet pipes is provided with a back-diffusion prevention part configured to prevent a back-diffusion of an inner atmosphere of the reaction tube.

17. The substrate processing apparatus of claim 14 , wherein a cross-sectional area of a flow path of each of the plurality of inlet pipes is greater than a cross-sectional area of each of the plurality of opening holes.

18. The substrate processing apparatus of claim 14 , wherein the plurality of opening holes are provided throughout the plurality of cooling zones with a same interval therebetween along a circumferential direction.

19. The substrate processing apparatus of claim 14 , wherein the plurality of opening holes are provided throughout the plurality of cooling zones with a same interval therebetween along a vertical direction.

Assignees

• Kokusai Electric Corp

Inventors

• Sugishita Masashi
• Ueno Masaaki

Classifications

• H10P72/0602 Primary

  Temperature monitoring · CPC title

• H10P72/0434

  mainly by convection · CPC title

• H10P95/00

  Generic processes or apparatus for manufacture or treatments not covered by the other groups of this subclass · CPC title

• H10P72/0402

  Apparatus for fluid treatment (H10P72/0441, H10P72/0448 take precedence) · CPC title

• H10P14/60

  of insulating materials · CPC title