Heat treatment method

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9422624-B2
Application number	US-201514603405-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jan 23, 2015
Priority date	Jan 24, 2014
Publication date	Aug 23, 2016
Grant date	Aug 23, 2016

Abstract

The present disclosure provides a heat treatment method, in which a substrate supporter supporting a plurality of substrates in the configuration of a shelf thereon is loaded in a vertical reaction tube surrounded by a heating mechanism and a heat treatment is performed. The method includes discharging a processing gas from a gas nozzle provided in the reaction tube to extend in a vertical direction of the substrate supporter, and supplying a temperature adjusting fluid into a flow path forming member provided to surround the gas nozzle in the reaction tube and adjusting a temperature of the processing gas in the gas nozzle.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A heat treatment method, in which a substrate supporter supporting a plurality of substrates in the configuration of a shelf thereon is loaded in a vertical reaction tube surrounded by a heating mechanism and a heat treatment is performed, comprising:
discharging a processing gas from a gas nozzle provided in the reaction tube to extend in a vertical direction of the substrate supporter; and
supplying a temperature adjusting fluid into a flow path forming member provided to surround the gas nozzle in the reaction tube and adjusting a temperature of the processing gas in the gas nozzle.

2. The heat treatment method of claim 1 , wherein the temperature adjusting fluid is a temperature adjusting gas.

3. The heat treatment method of claim 1 , wherein the processing gas is a source gas for forming a film.

4. The heat treatment method of claim 3 , further comprising supplying a reaction gas reacting with the source gas into the reaction tube.

5. The heat treatment method of claim 3 , wherein the temperature adjusting fluid is a cooling fluid for cooling the processing gas.

6. The heat treatment method of claim 5 , wherein the heating mechanism is configured to include a plurality of heating units to respectively heat a plurality of regions arranged in the reaction tube in a vertical direction,
the heat treatment method further comprising:
loading the substrate supporter in the reaction tube; and
adjusting a heating temperature in the reaction tube such that after the loading of the substrate supporter is terminated, a temperature of a lower region of the reaction tube among the plurality of regions is set to a first temperature higher than a temperature of an upper region relative to the lower region and not less than a thermal decomposition temperature of the processing gas,
wherein adjusting the temperature of the processing gas includes adjusting at least one of the temperature and the flow rate of the temperature adjusting fluid such that the temperature of the processing gas in the gas nozzle is lowered below the thermal decomposition temperature of the processing gas by the flow of the temperature adjusting fluid.

7. The heat treatment method of claim 6 , further comprising lowering the temperature of the lower region of the reaction tube to a second temperature lower than the first temperature after the temperature of the lower region of the reaction tube is set to the first temperature,
wherein discharging the processing gas includes initiating the supply of the processing gas before the temperature of the lower region of the reaction tube is lowered to the second temperature, after the temperature of the lower region of the reaction tube is set to the first temperature.

8. The heat treatment method of claim 5 , wherein when the heat treatment is performed on the substrates, an atmosphere in the reaction tube is set to a temperature not less than the thermal decomposition temperature of the processing gas,
wherein adjusting the temperature of the processing gas includes maintaining an interior of the gas nozzle at a temperature not higher than the thermal decomposition temperature of the processing gas.

9. The heat treatment method of claim 5 , after discharging the processing gas, further comprising reducing a supply flow rate of the temperature adjusting fluid.

10. The heat treatment method of claim 3 , wherein the processing gas is a metal-containing organic gas.

11. A non-transitory storage medium configured to store a computer program operating on a computer,
wherein the computer program includes a group of steps for performing the heat treatment method according to claim 1 .

Assignees

• Tokyo Electron Ltd

Inventors

• Nakajima Shigeru
• Shima Hiromi
• Tachino Yusuke

Classifications

• C23C16/45578

  Elongated nozzles, tubes with holes · CPC title

• C23C16/45572

  Cooled nozzles · CPC title

• C23C16/45546

  specially adapted for a substrate stack in the ALD reactor · CPC title

• C23C16/4402 Primary

  Reduction of impurities in the source gas · CPC title

• C23C16/46 Primary

  characterised by the method used for heating the substrate (C23C16/48, C23C16/50 take precedence) · CPC title