Raw material gas supply method

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9563209-B2
Application number	US-201414168549-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jan 30, 2014
Priority date	Jan 31, 2013
Publication date	Feb 7, 2017
Grant date	Feb 7, 2017

Abstract

A raw material gas supply method for use in a film forming apparatus which forms a film on a substrate, includes supplying a carrier gas to a gas phase zone defined inside a raw material container accommodating a liquid or solid raw material, vaporizing the raw material, supplying a raw material gas containing the vaporized raw material from the raw material container to the film forming apparatus via a raw material gas supply path, measuring a flow rate of the vaporized raw material flowing through the raw material gas supply path, comparing the flow rate of the vaporized raw material obtained by the flow rate measurement unit with a predetermined target value, and controlling an internal pressure of the raw material container to be increased when the flow rate is higher than the predetermined target value, and to be decreased when the is lower than the predetermined target value.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A raw material gas supply method for use in a film forming apparatus which forms a film on a substrate, the method comprising:
supplying a carrier gas to a gas phase zone defined inside a raw material container, the raw material container accommodating a liquid or solid raw material;
vaporizing the raw material;
supplying a raw material gas containing the vaporized raw material from the raw material container to the film forming apparatus via a raw material gas supply path;
measuring a flow rate of the vaporized raw material flowing through the raw material gas supply path;
comparing the measured flow rate of the vaporized raw material with a predetermined target value;
controlling an internal pressure of the raw material container to be increased when the measured flow rate of the vaporized raw material is higher than the predetermined target value, and to be decreased when the measured flow rate of the vaporized raw material is lower than the predetermined target value;
supplying a buffer gas to a downstream side of a position at which the pressure control gas is supplied in the raw material gas supply path; and
controlling a supply amount of the pressure control gas and a supply amount of the buffer gas such that a sum of the supply amount of the pressure control gas and the supply amount of the buffer gas becomes constant,
wherein controlling an internal pressure of the raw material container is preformed by supplying a pressure control gas to the raw material gas supply path.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein controlling an internal pressure of the raw material container is performed by adjusting an opening degree of a pressure control valve provided in the raw material gas supply path.

3. A non-transitory storage medium storing a program for controlling a raw material gas supply device for use in a film forming apparatus configured to form a film on a substrate,
wherein the program causes the raw material gas supply device to perform the method of claim 1 .

Assignees

• Tokyo Electron Ltd

Inventors

• Inoue Mitsuya
• Takado Makoto

Classifications

• C23C16/4481 Primary

  by evaporation using carrier gas in contact with the source material (C23C16/4486 takes precedence) · CPC title

• Y10T137/0379

  By fluid pressure · CPC title

• G05D16/00 Primary

  Control of fluid pressure · CPC title

• G05D7/0676

  by action on flow sources (G05D7/0688, G05D7/0694 take precedence) · CPC title

• Y10T137/7758

  Pilot or servo controlled · CPC title