Substrate Processing Apparatus and Non-transitory Computer-readable Recording Medium

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2019276938-A1
Application number	US-201916425652-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	May 29, 2019
Priority date	Nov 30, 2016
Publication date	Sep 12, 2019
Grant date	—

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; 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 instruct an execution of a recipe comprising: (a) elevating an inner temperature of the reaction tube to a 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, and further configured to control the temperature controller and the valve controller so that the inner temperature of the reaction tube changes in (a) and (c) at the predetermined temperature elevating rate and the predetermined temperature lowering rate, respectively, by performing a heating by the heater in parallel with a cooling by the gas supplied through the control valve.

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 the cooling zones; and wherein the control valve is provided at each of the plurality of cooling zones, and an opening degree of the control valve of each of the plurality of the cooling zones is controlled independently according to the plurality of the cooling zones.

3 . The substrate processing apparatus of claim 2 , wherein the heater is divided into 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 time duration of an overshoot generated during a transition from (a) to (b) by performing the heating by the heater in parallel with the cooling by the gas supplied through the control valve.

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 (c) by performing the cooling by the gas supplied through the control valve.

6 . The substrate processing apparatus of claim 1 , further comprises a plurality of thermocouples provided respectively in a plurality of control zones,
wherein the heater is divided into the plurality of the control zones, and 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 the control zones and a second temperature detected by a thermocouple provided 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 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 time duration of an overshoot generated during a transition from (a) to (b) by performing the heating by the heater in parallel with the cooling by the gas supplied through the control valve.

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 (a).

10 . The substrate processing apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the recipe further includes (d) 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 an overshoot generated during (d) by performing the heating by the heater in parallel with the cooling by the gas supplied through the control valve.

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 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 . A non-transitory computer-readable recording medium storing a program used for a controller of a substrate processing apparatus comprising a temperature controller configured to control a heater configured to heat a substrate placed on a boat accommodated in a reaction tube and a valve controller configured to adjust an opening degree of a control valve configured to adjust a flow rate of a gas supplied toward the reaction tube, wherein the program causes the controller of the substrate processing apparatus to perform:
(a) loading the boat placed a plurality of substrates into the reaction tube; (b) elevating an inner temperature of the reaction tube to a predetermined temperature at a predetermined temperature elevating rate; (c) processing the plurality of the substrates while maintaining the predetermined temperature; and (d) lowering the inner temperature of the reaction tube from the predetermined temperature at a predetermined temperature lowering rate, wherein the inner temperature of the reaction tube in (b) is elevated at the predetermined temperature elevating rate by performing a heating by the heater in parallel with a cooling by the gas supplied through the control valve, and the inner temperature of the reaction tube in (d) is lowered at the predetermined temperature lowering rate by performing the heating by the heater in parallel with the cooling by the gas supplied through the control valve.

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