Continuous substrate processing system

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9748125-B2
Application number	US-201313755891-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jan 31, 2013
Priority date	Jan 31, 2012
Publication date	Aug 29, 2017
Grant date	Aug 29, 2017

Abstract

A processing chamber having a plurality of movable substrate carriers stacked therein for continuously processing a plurality of substrates is provided. The movable substrate carrier is capable of being transported from outside of the processing chamber, e.g., being transferred from a load luck chamber, into the processing chamber and out of the processing chamber, e.g., being transferred into another load luck chamber. Process gases delivered into the processing chamber are spatially separated into a plurality of processing slots, and/or temporally controlled. The processing chamber can be part of a multi-chamber substrate processing system.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A processing chamber for processing a plurality of substrates, the processing chamber comprising:
a chamber body having a top end and a bottom end with a first opening near the bottom end and a second opening near the top end;
a plurality of substrate carriers between the first opening and the second opening, each of the plurality of substrate carriers having a plurality of spacer pins positioned on an outer circumference of each of the plurality of substrate carriers to provide a vertical stack of substrate carriers with a space between each substrate carrier;
a gas delivery system;
an exhaust system;
a plurality of processing slots formed between the bottom end and the top end of the chamber body, wherein each of the plurality of processing slots is in fluid communication with a fluid delivery channel of the gas delivery system and a fluid outlet of the exhaust system to deliver a horizontal flow of gas across each of the plurality of processing slots;
a substrate latch comprising at least three movable contacting latches positioned near the bottom end of the chamber body and above the first opening, the at least three movable contacting latches configured to support the vertical stack of substrate carriers; and
a substrate support assembly to secure and support an additional substrate carrier and load the additional substrate carrier into the processing chamber from a bottom of the vertical stack of substrate carriers,
wherein loading an additional substrate carrier comprises elevating the vertical stack of substrate carriers with the substrate support assembly to a position above the first opening, moving the contacting latches to a support position, the movable contacting latches in the support position circumferentially supporting the vertical stack of substrate carriers, lowering the substrate support assembly to a position to support the additional substrate carrier, adding the additional substrate carrier onto the substrate support assembly, moving the substrate support assembly upward with the additional substrate carrier to contact the bottom of the vertical stack of substrate carriers, moving the movable contacting latches from the support position to a non-supporting position so that the substrate support assembly with the additional substrate carrier supports the vertical stack of substrate carriers.

2. The processing chamber of claim 1 , wherein each of the plurality of processing slots processes one single substrate at a time.

3. The processing chamber of claim 1 , wherein each of the plurality of substrates is transferred inside the chamber body one at a time.

4. The processing chamber of claim 1 , wherein a substrate can be transferred into the chamber body via the first opening, processed from one processing slot, continuously moved to another processing slot within the chamber body, and transferred out of the chamber body via the second opening.

5. The processing chamber of claim 1 , wherein a volume for each processing slot has a height corresponding to the distance between two movable substrate carriers.

6. The substrate processing system of claim 1 , further comprising a transfer robot to transfer a substrate supported on the additional substrate carrier into the processing chamber via the first opening for processing the substrate through the plurality of processing slots.

Assignees

• Wu Banqiu
• Patibandla Nag B
• Fujita Toshiaki
• Hofmann Ralf
• Narwankar Pravin K
• Oh Jeonghoon
• Satya Srinivas
• Xia Li-Qun
• Applied Materials Inc

Inventors

• Wu Banqiu
• Patibandla Nag B
• Fujita Toshiaki
• Hofmann Ralf
• Narwankar Pravin K
• Oh Jeonghoon
• Satya Srinivas
• Xia Li-Qun

Classifications

• H10P72/30

  for conveying, e.g. between different workstations · CPC title

• H10P72/18 Primary

  characterised by being specially adapted for supporting a single substrate or by comprising a stack of such individual supports · CPC title

• H10P72/10 Primary

  using carriers specially adapted therefor, e.g. front opening unified pods [FOUP] · CPC title

• C23C16/4584

  the substrate being rotated · CPC title

• H01L21/67346

  Electricity · mapped topic