US-20260125791-A1 - SUBSTRATE PROCESSING APPARATUS

US20260125791A1US 20260125791 A1US20260125791 A1US 20260125791A1US-20260125791-A1

Abstract

A substrate processing apparatus comprises a processing chamber and a gas supply portion configured in an upper portion of the processing chamber, for supplying the processing gas into the processing chamber. A plurality of substrate holding portions are configured in the processing chamber and located below the gas supply portion, for holding substrates. An exhaust portion is configured in a lower portion of the processing chamber, for exhausting gas from the processing chamber. The exhaust portion comprises a plurality of exhaust grooves, a plurality of exhaust flow channels and a shared main exhaust port. Each exhaust groove is configured with a substrate holding portion and two exhaust flow channels, to connect the exhaust groove to the main exhaust port. Wherein, the main exhaust port is located at a geometric center of a plurality of substrate holding portions, and the plurality of exhaust flow channels have the same exhaust volume.

Inventors

Hui Wang
Shan ZHANG
Ce Lv
Sulan Xie
Hongcai Fei
Tom Kim
Jacob Lee
William Baek

Assignees

ACM RESEARCH (SHANGHAI), INC.
ACM RESEARCH KOREA CO., LTD.
CLEANCHIP TECHNOLOGIES LIMITED

Dates

Publication Date: 20260507
Application Date: 20230726
Priority Date: 20220923

Claims (8)

1 . A substrate processing apparatus, comprising: a processing chamber; a gas supply portion, configured in an upper portion of the processing chamber, for supplying processing gas into the processing chamber; a plurality of substrate holding portions, configured in the processing chamber and located below the gas supply portion, for holding substrates; an exhaust portion, configured in a lower portion of the processing chamber, for exhausting gas from the processing chamber, the exhaust portion comprising a plurality of exhaust grooves, a plurality of exhaust flow channels and a shared main exhaust port, each exhaust groove configured with a substrate holding portion and two exhaust flow channels, for connecting the exhaust groove to the main exhaust port; wherein, the main exhaust port is located at a geometric center of the plurality of substrate holding portions, and the plurality of exhaust flow channels have the same exhaust volume.
2 . The substrate processing apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein two exhaust flow channels configured for each exhaust groove are symmetrical about a line connecting the center of exhaust groove and the center of main exhaust port, each exhaust groove and the two exhaust flow channels configured for each exhaust groove form an exhaust unit, and a plurality of exhaust units are uniformly distributed around a circumference centered on the main exhaust port.
3 . The substrate processing apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the plurality of exhaust flow channels are independent of each other.
4 . The substrate processing apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein adjacent exhaust flow channels of different exhaust grooves at least partially overlap, so that the gas in the different exhaust grooves converge to flow all the way to the main exhaust port.
5 . The substrate processing apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein each substrate holding portion comprises: a carrier table, for holding the substrate; a support shaft, the upper end of the support shaft being secured to the carrier table; a liftable mechanism, connected to the lower end of the support shaft, for driving the carrier table up and down between a process position for performing a process treatment on the substrate and a transfer position for handing over the substrate to an external transfer mechanism.
6 . The substrate processing apparatus according to claim 5 , further comprising rectifier boards, with one of the rectifier boards fixed at an interval below each carrier table, and when the carrier table is located in the process position, the rectifier board rises with the carrier table to the groove opening position of the corresponding exhaust groove, and an inlet annular gap is formed between the outer peripheral surface of the rectifier board and the inner peripheral surface of the exhaust groove.
7 . The substrate processing apparatus according to claim 6 , wherein the rectifier boards are provided with a plurality of gas inlet holes.
8 . The substrate processing apparatus according to claim 5 , wherein the gas supply portion comprises a plurality of gas nozzles corresponding to the plurality of exhaust grooves, each gas nozzle is disposed opposite to one carrier table for supplying the processing gas to a substrate holding on the carrier table, each gas nozzle has a deflector shield on the outer peripheral side, so that when the carrier table is in a process position, an exhaust annular gap is formed between the inner peripheral surface of the deflector shield and the outer peripheral surface of the carrier table, to allow the processing gas supplied by the gas nozzles to be discharged downwardly along the exhaust annular gap towards the corresponding exhaust groove.

Description

FIELD OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to the field of semiconductor equipment, and more particularly to a substrate processing apparatus with a uniform exhaust function. BACKGROUND In the semiconductor manufacturing process, in order to simultaneously take into accounts the production efficiency and the precise control of the processing of a single substrate, a number of processing units (e.g., the processing units can be used to perform a process of thin film deposition and an etching process, etc., on a horizontally placed substrate) for the execution of the processing of a single substrate are usually integrated into the same processing chamber to form a substrate processing apparatus. In such a substrate processing apparatus, the nonuniformity of gas exhaust in the processing chamber usually results in a decrease in the uniformity of the distribution of the processing gas on the surface of the substrate, leading to a deterioration of the in-surface uniformity of a single substrate (e.g., a decrease in the levelness of the film formation on the surface of the substrate or a deterioration in the uniformity of the film etching) as well as difficulties in ensuring the consistency of the inter-slice between a number of substrates, causing adverse effects on the quality and reliability of the products. SUMMARY In view of the above-described drawbacks of the prior art, the present invention aims to provide a substrate processing apparatus having a structure of the uniformity of gas exhaust, for solving problems in the prior art of poor uniformity of the in-surface of substrates and terrible consistency of the inter-slice between substrates in the processing chamber caused by the nonuniformity of gas exhaust. To realize the above aim and other related aims, the present invention provides a substrate processing apparatus, comprising: a processing chamber;a gas supply portion, configured in an upper portion of the processing chamber, for supplying processing gas into the processing chamber;a plurality of substrate holding portions, configured in the processing chamber and located below the gas supply portion, for holding substrates;an exhaust portion, configured in a lower portion of the processing chamber, for exhausting gas from the processing chamber, the exhaust portion comprising a plurality of exhaust grooves, a plurality of exhaust flow channels and a shared main exhaust port, each exhaust groove configured with a substrate holding portion and two exhaust flow channels, for connecting the exhaust groove to the main exhaust port;wherein, the main exhaust port is located at a geometric center of the plurality of substrate holding portions, and the plurality of exhaust flow channels have the same exhaust volume. As an optional embodiment, two exhaust flow channels configured for each exhaust groove are symmetrical about a line connecting the center of exhaust groove and the center of main exhaust port, each exhaust groove and the two exhaust flow channels configured for each exhaust groove form an exhaust unit, and a plurality of exhaust units are uniformly distributed around a circumference centered on the main exhaust port. As an optional embodiment, the plurality of exhaust flow channels are independent of each other. As an optional embodiment, adjacent exhaust flow channels of different exhaust grooves at least partially overlap, so that the gas in the different exhaust grooves converge to flow all the way to the main exhaust port. As an optional embodiment, each substrate holding portion comprises: a carrier table, for holding the substrate;a support shaft, the upper end of the support shaft being secured to the carrier table;a liftable mechanism, connected to the lower end of the support shaft, for driving the carrier table up and down between a process position for performing a process treatment on the substrate and a transfer position for handing over the substrate to an external transfer mechanism. As an optional embodiment, the substrate processing apparatus further comprises rectifier boards, with one of the rectifier boards fixed at an interval below each carrier table, when the carrier table is located in the process position, the rectifier board rises with the carrier table to the groove opening position of the corresponding exhaust groove, and an inlet annular gap is formed between the outer peripheral surface of the rectifier board and the inner peripheral surface of the exhaust groove. As an optional embodiment, the rectifier boards are provided with a plurality of gas inlet holes. As an optional embodiment, the gas supply portion comprises a plurality of gas nozzles corresponding to the plurality of exhaust grooves, each gas nozzle is disposed opposite to one carrier table for supplying the processing gas to a substrate holding on the carrier table, each gas nozzle has a deflector shield on the outer peripheral side, so that when the carrier table is in a process position, an