Film formation apparatus

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12385125-B2
Application number	US-202318337764-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 20, 2023
Priority date	Jun 20, 2022
Publication date	Aug 12, 2025
Grant date	Aug 12, 2025

Abstract

A film formation apparatus includes: a chamber which an interior thereof can be made vacuum; a rotary table provided inside the chamber, holding a workpiece, and circulating and transporting the workpiece in a circular trajectory; a film formation unit including a target formed of film formation material and a plasma generator which turns sputtering gas introduced between the target and the rotary table into plasma, the film formation unit depositing by sputtering film formation material on the workpiece; a film processing unit processing the film deposited by the film formation unit on the workpiece; holding regions each holding the workpiece and provided in a circular film formation region facing the film formation unit and the film processing unit that is a region other than the rotation axis in the rotary table; and a heater provided in the holding regions.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A film formation apparatus comprising:
a chamber which an interior thereof can be made vacuum;
a rotary table provided inside the chamber, holding a workpiece, and circulating and transporting the workpiece in a circular trajectory;
a film formation unit including a target formed of film formation material containing and a plasma generator which turns sputtering gas introduced between the target and the rotary table into plasma, wherein the film formation unit deposits by sputtering particles of the film formation material on the workpiece circulated and transported by the rotary table; and
a film processing unit processing the film deposited on the workpiece in the film formation unit circulated and transported by the rotary table in the film formation unit,
wherein the rotary table comprises
a plurality of holding regions which holds each workpiece and which is provided in a film formation region that is an annular region in the rotary table other than a rotary shaft facing the film formation unit and the film processing unit,
a heater arranged between the rotary table and the workpiece in each of the plurality of the holding regions to heat the workpiece on each of the plurality of the holding regions, and
a heat insulator arranged between the rotary table and the heater in at least one of the plurality of holding regions.

2. The film formation apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the heater can control temperature so that temperature of the workpiece rises by stages to target temperature.

3. The film formation apparatus according to claim 1 , further comprising a heat shield arranged along the film formation region distantly from the rotary table at a side opposite the film formation region facing each processing unit of the rotary table,
wherein the heat shield comprises
a plurality of heat shielding plates being a flat ring-shaped plate and arranged as stacked layers with vertical spaces, and
a support leg supporting and fixing the plurality of the heat shielding plates to a bottom of the chamber.

4. The film formation apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the workpiece is held by the rotary table via a tray,
the film formation apparatus further comprising an absorption member which absorbs heat from the heater and generates electromagnetic wave is provided between the tray and the workpiece.

5. The film formation apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the film processing unit performs chemical reaction processing on the film formed by the film formation unit,
wherein the film formation apparatus further comprises a surface processing unit drawing and irradiating ion on at least one of the surface of the workpiece and the surface of the film circulated and transported by the rotary table.

6. The film formation apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein:
the film formation unit includes a GaN film formation unit depositing particles of the film formation material containing GaN, and
the film processing unit includes a nitriding processing unit nitriding the particles of the film formation material deposited in the GaN film formation processing unit.

7. The film formation apparatus according to claim 5 , wherein the film processing unit further comprises:
a cylinder body fit in a ceiling of the chamber so that a first opening thereof faces the rotary-table side with distance, and protruded into an interior space of the chamber,
a window provided to block the first opening of the cylinder body,
an antenna being a conductor wound in a coil-shape, arranged in an interior space of the cylinder body being separated from a processing space in the chamber by the window, and generating electric field when AC current is applied, and
a first processing gas introducer introducing a first processing gas into the processing space,
wherein the surface processing unit further comprises:
a cylindrical electrode having a square cylinder wherein one end has a second opening, the other blocked end of the cylindrical electrode is attached to the third opening provided in the ceiling of the chamber via an insulation member so that the one end with the second opening faces the rotary table,
a shield covering a side wall of the cylindrical electrode located inside the chamber,
a second processing gas introducer introducing a second processing gas into the cylindrical electrode, and
an RF power supply applying high-frequency voltage to the cylindrical electrode,
wherein the RF power supply applies the high-frequency voltage to the cylindrical electrode, so that a desired negative bias voltage is applied to the rotary table, and ions are drawn to the workpiece.

8. The film formation apparatus according to claim 7 , wherein:
the film formation unit includes a GaN film formation unit depositing particles of the film formation material containing GaN, and
the film processing unit includes a nitriding processing unit nitriding the particles of the film formation material deposited in the GaN film formation processing unit.

9. The film formation apparatus according to claim 8 , wherein the film processing unit, the nitriding processing unit, and the surface processing unit are arranged in this order on a path for circulating and transporting the workpiece.

10. The film formation apparatus according to claim 1 , further comprising a rotary connector electrically connecting the heater and a power supply,
wherein the rotary connector comprises
a plurality of conductive ring electrodes arranged coaxially on the rotary shaft outside the chamber and rotating with the rotary shaft, and
a static electrode comprising a plurality of conductive brush electrodes fixed separately from the rotary shaft at a position in contact with the ring electrode.

11. The film formation apparatus according to claim 10 , wherein the rotary shaft is cylindrical,
wherein the rotary shaft further comprises:
a circular plate airtightly covering a central hole that is an opened end of the rotary shaft, and
a cable passing through a hole provided outside the chamber in the rotary shaft and airtightly passing through a center of the circular plate from inside the rotary shaft,

wherein the cable passes through a hole provided in the rotary table and is connected to the heating unit from a rear side of the rotary table.

12. The film formation apparatus according to claim 3 , wherein the heat shield is a metal component with L-shaped cross-section comprising a cylindrical side plate standing straight from an outer edge of a flat plate, and
a transport port is formed in the cylindrical side plate by cutting out a part thereof corresponding to a load lock to carry in the workpiece to the rotary table.

Assignees

• Shibaura Mechatronics Corp

Inventors

• Takizawa Yoji
• Higuchi Masatoshi

Classifications

• C23C14/50

  Substrate holders · CPC title

• C23C14/0641

  Nitrides (C23C14/0617 takes precedence) · CPC title

• H01J37/3411 Primary

  Constructional aspects of the reactor · CPC title

• C23C14/586

  Nitriding · CPC title

• H01J37/32724

  Temperature · CPC title