JP2008197374A - Vacuum chamber, load lock chamber, and processing apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a vacuum chamber which is conveniently transported, is compact and suitable to preprocessing stage, a load lock chamber equipped with the vacuum chamber, and a processing apparatus. <P>SOLUTION: The vacuum chamber has two or more rectangular parallelepiped chambers 11a to 11c, having through holes 10a to 10c formed where a groove enabling a sealing member to be mounted is formed on the surface of at least one of the chamber members 11a to 11c where one opening of a through hole is formed, the sealing member is mounted in the groove, and two or more chamber members are jointed together so that through holes of the adjacent chamber members communicate with each other. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2008,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a vacuum chamber, a load lock chamber, and a processing apparatus.

  In recent years, the size of liquid crystal displays has increased, and a glass substrate having a size of, for example, 2850 mm × 3350 mm has been used as a processing substrate. In manufacturing the liquid crystal display, many processing apparatuses such as a sputtering apparatus for forming a wiring metal film are used, and these processing apparatuses have a vacuum chamber for performing a predetermined process.

  As the processing substrate is increased in size, the vacuum chamber itself of the processing apparatus needs to be increased in size so that a film forming process or the like can be performed all over the entire surface of the processing substrate. In this case, if a large vacuum chamber is manufactured by cutting out from one large aluminum block, a dedicated large cutting device is required, resulting in an increase in the manufacturing cost of the vacuum chamber itself.

Therefore, the price of the processing apparatus can be reduced, and a frame-like structure in which a plurality of divided components are joined by welding in order to efficiently use the apparatus material and reduce waste of material. There is known a vacuum chamber including a side wall portion, a bottom plate and a lid plate fixed to the side wall portion by bolts. (For example, refer to Patent Document 1).
JP-A-8-64542 (FIG. 1 and claim 1)

  However, when a processing apparatus for repeatedly performing an atmospheric state and a low pressure state, such as a load lock chamber and a pretreatment process, is configured using the vacuum chamber, leakage occurs at the side wall portion where the members are joined by welding. There is a problem that it becomes easy.

  Even if only the side wall portion on the frame is formed by welding a plurality of divided parts, a transportation means such as a large trailer is required to transport the bottom plate and the cover plate to the installation location of the processing apparatus. It is inconvenient, and depending on its size and weight, there is a problem that it cannot be transported due to legal restrictions.

  By the way, in a processing apparatus that performs pre-processing such as degassing processing of processing substrates, in order to process a large number of large substrates simultaneously, each vacuum chamber having one processing space is stacked and fixed to form a multi-stage processing space. In some cases, a multi-stage vacuum chamber is used. In this case, the bottom plate and the cover plate of each vacuum chamber must have a predetermined thickness so that they can withstand distortion due to a pressure difference between the processing space at a low pressure and the outside of the vacuum chamber. The height of each vacuum chamber is increased. Therefore, if the vacuum chambers are stacked to form, for example, a 10-stage vacuum chamber, the height of the multi-stage vacuum chamber becomes very high, the installation location of the apparatus is limited, and the material for manufacturing the apparatus increases. There is a problem.

  SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide a vacuum chamber comprising components that are convenient for transportation and have a small amount of material for manufacturing a device, in order to solve the above-described problems of the prior art. Another object of the present invention is to provide a load lock chamber and a processing apparatus provided with this vacuum chamber.

  The vacuum chamber of the present invention includes two or more substantially rectangular parallelepiped chamber members in which through holes are formed, and a seal is formed on a surface of the chamber member in which one of the through holes of at least one chamber member is formed. A groove is formed to allow attachment of a member, and a seal member is attached to the groove, and two or more chamber members are joined so that each through hole of an adjacent chamber member communicates. .

  Since the member constituting the vacuum chamber is a substantially rectangular parallelepiped chamber member in which a through hole is formed, it is convenient for transportation. Moreover, even when a vacuum chamber is used in an apparatus that performs processing in an atmospheric state and a low pressure state by joining using a seal member instead of welding, leakage from the joint portion is generated. Can be suppressed.

  It is preferable that two or more through holes are formed. By forming two or more through holes, it is possible to configure a multistage vacuum chamber. In the case of using a substantially rectangular parallelepiped chamber member in which two or more through holes are formed, the through holes communicate with each other to form a multistage processing space, so that there is no atmospheric space between the processing spaces. Therefore, in the vacuum chamber of the present invention, it is only necessary to provide a wall portion having a thickness that can withstand the vacuum state of each processing space between the processing spaces, so that a vacuum chamber having a larger number of stages can be produced more compactly. Is possible.

  The vacuum chamber is preferably formed by stacking the joined chamber members in two or more stages. It is possible to easily construct a multistage vacuum chamber.

  The load lock chamber of the present invention includes two or more substantially rectangular parallelepiped chamber members in which two or more through holes are formed, and a surface in which one of the through holes of at least one of the chamber members is formed. It is composed of a vacuum chamber formed by attaching an O-ring to a groove provided in each of the grooves and connecting adjacent chamber members so that the adjacent through holes communicate with each other, and a lid member is formed in the through hole of the end chamber member. A vacuum pump is connected to a processing space that is provided and that has through holes communicating with each other. In this way, the load lock chamber having a multi-stage vacuum chamber is produced in a vacuum chamber provided with two or more processing spaces in which two or more chamber members are arranged and the respective through holes communicate with each other. Can be small and convenient for transportation. In addition, by configuring the chamber member as described above, the entire load lock chamber can be formed in a compact manner, and by joining the chamber members with an O-ring, leaks are unlikely to occur even when repeated evacuation is repeated.

  The processing apparatus of the present invention includes two or more substantially rectangular parallelepiped chamber members formed with two or more through holes, and the surface of the chamber member on which one of the through holes of at least one chamber member is formed. It consists of a vacuum chamber formed by attaching an O-ring to the provided groove and adjoining adjacent chamber members so that adjacent through holes communicate with each other. A wall member is provided in the hole, a lid member is provided in the through hole of the chamber member at the other end, and a processing space in which each through hole communicates is connected to a vacuum pump, and each processing space At the bottom of the substrate, a mounting table for mounting the substrate and a heating means for heating the substrate are provided. Thus, each chamber member is prepared by providing a processing apparatus having multi-stage processing spaces (deaeration chambers) with two or more deaeration chambers in which the chamber members are arranged and the through holes communicate with each other. It can be made small and convenient for transportation. And by comprising with the said chamber member, the whole processing apparatus can be formed compactly, and it is suitable for a pre-processing process by joining chamber members with an O-ring.

  As described above, the vacuum chamber, the load lock chamber, and the processing apparatus of the present invention are compact, suitable for the pretreatment process, and have excellent effects that the constituent members are convenient for transportation. Play.

  An embodiment of the first vacuum chamber of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 1 is a schematic perspective view of a multistage vacuum chamber 1 of the present invention. The multi-stage vacuum chamber 1 has, for example, 10 processing spaces A in the entire vacuum chamber 1, and is formed by stacking 10 vacuum chambers 11 of the present invention in which one processing space A is formed. Each vacuum chamber 11 is configured by joining a plurality of chamber members (in FIG. 1, three chamber members 11a to 11c are illustrated for ease of explanation) with seal members such as O-rings. . Each processing space A is also configured by communicating through holes 10a to 10c provided in the chamber members 11a to 11c. In this way, the small block-shaped chamber members 11a to 11c are joined with the seal member to produce one vacuum chamber, and the vacuum chambers are stacked and fixed with bolts to produce the multistage vacuum chamber 1. Therefore, each chamber member can be transported to a place where the processing apparatus is installed and assembled there. Therefore, a large and special transportation means is unnecessary. In addition, since it is joined by the seal member, even if the process of lowering from the atmospheric state to a predetermined pressure is repeated, leaks are unlikely to occur, which is particularly suitable for performing a pretreatment process.

  The side wall 111, the top wall 112, and the bottom wall 113 of the chamber members 11a to 11c of the multistage vacuum chamber 1 are formed in the processing space A when the processing space A is at a low pressure and the vacuum chamber of the present invention. 1. A predetermined thickness is required to withstand distortion due to a pressure difference with the outside. For example, in FIG. 1, the bottom wall 113 has a thickness of 195 mm, the side wall 111 has a thickness of 85 mm, and the upper wall The thickness of 112 is 195 mm. In particular, an atmospheric space (a space that is not evacuated) 12 is formed between the processing spaces A, that is, between the bottom wall 113 of the upper vacuum chamber 11 and the upper wall 112 of the lower vacuum chamber 11. Therefore, a predetermined thickness (195 mm) is required between the space 12 and the upper and lower processing spaces A so that the pressure difference can be withstood when the processing space is set to a low pressure. It cannot be thinned. As a result, the thickness between the through holes 10a is 390 mm. Therefore, if the vacuum chambers 11 are stacked in 10 stages as shown in FIG. 1 to form a multi-stage vacuum chamber 1, the height may become very high.

  The configuration of the second vacuum chamber of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. 2 is a schematic perspective view showing the configuration of the second vacuum chamber 2 of the present invention, and FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram showing the configuration of the chamber members 21a to 21f constituting the vacuum chamber 2, and FIG. These are typical sectional drawings which show the structure of the vacuum chamber 2 of this invention.

The vacuum chamber 2 of the present invention is configured by joining two or more chamber members, and a processing space A in which a processing substrate can be transferred is formed in multiple stages. In FIG. 2, as an example, the vacuum chamber 2 includes three chamber members 21 a to 21 c each having two or more through holes 20 a to 20 c penetrating between opposing wall surfaces, arranged side by side, and joined together. Since the chamber members 21d to 21f in which the through holes 20d to 20f are formed are arranged and joined to each other under the 21a to 21c, the chamber members are stacked three horizontally and two vertically. Become. Therefore, the vacuum chamber 2 includes a total of six chamber members 21a to 21f. The stacked chamber members 21a to 21c and chamber members 21d to 21f are preferably joined with bolts to prevent displacement.
Each processing space A is formed by communicating through-holes 20a to 20c and 20d to 20f each having a polygonal cross section of each chamber member 21a to 21f. In FIG. 2, only the uppermost through holes 20a to 20f of each chamber member are shown for the processing space A for the sake of simplicity, but as shown in FIG. 4, each chamber member has five steps. Through holes are provided, and a total of 10 processing spaces A are formed in the vacuum chamber 2.

  The chamber members 21a to 21f are each made of, for example, aluminum or stainless steel. In FIG. 3, for example, the chamber members 21a made of substantially rectangular parallelepiped aluminum have a substantially rectangular parallelepiped shape penetrating between opposing wall surfaces. An example in which five through holes 20a are provided in the vertical direction is shown. Then, the five stages of through holes 20a to 20c provided in the chamber members 21a to 21c communicate with each other to form a vertical five-stage processing space A, and two chamber members are stacked one above the other. The processing space A is formed in 10 stages in the entire vacuum chamber 2. The uppermost processing space A will be described as an example. Through holes 20a to 20c formed in the uppermost stage of the chamber members 21a to 21c are communicated to form one processing space A.

  The chamber members 21a to 21f are, for example, 2200 mm × 3200 mm × 1200 mm (length × width × depth), and are large (for example, 4400 mm × 3200 mm × 3600 mm (length × width × depth)) from the compact and lightweight chamber member 21. A multistage vacuum chamber 2 can be configured. Since the chamber member is transported without a large and special transportation means, there is an advantage that the chamber member can be transported to a place where the processing apparatus is installed and assembled there to produce an arbitrarily large multistage vacuum chamber. Further, the through holes 20a to 20f communicate with each other to form the processing space A as described above. For example, in order to introduce a substrate having a large area of 2850 mm × 3350 mm, the through holes 20a to 20f The cross section is set to be a substantially rectangular shape of 210 mm × 2930 mm, and the processing space A in which these sections communicate with each other is set to 210 mm × 2930 mm × 3600 mm (vertical × horizontal × depth).

  In the chamber member, it is necessary to set the thickness of each wall portion to a predetermined thickness so that the vacuum chamber 2 is less likely to be distorted when the inside of the processing space A is set to a desired pressure (for example, 1 Pa). is there. For example, in FIG. 3, the thickness of the side wall portion 211 is set to 85 mm, the thickness of the upper wall portion 212 is set to 195 mm, the thickness of the bottom wall portion 213 is set to 195 mm, and the thickness of the wall surface between the through holes 20a is set to 195 mm. In the vacuum chamber of the present invention, since the through hole 20 is formed through the wall surface of the substantially rectangular parallelepiped chamber member 21a, there is no atmospheric space between the processing spaces A. Therefore, between the processing spaces, It is only necessary to have a thickness that can withstand the low pressure state of the processing space. Therefore, since only the portion between the chamber members 21a to 21c and the chamber members 21c to 21f that join the chamber members is thick, it is possible to produce a compact multistage vacuum chamber as a whole.

  Each chamber member 21 a to 21 f is provided with a joining member so that it can be joined to each adjacent chamber member 21. As the joining member, for example, a sealing member such as an O-ring is exemplified, and one surface of the chamber members 21a to 21f constituting the vacuum chamber 2 in which through holes of the chamber members 21a, 21c, 21d, and 21f are formed. A groove portion 214 is formed around each through hole, and an O-ring R is attached to the groove portion 214 and fixed with a fixing tool (not shown) (for example, a screw that passes through the chamber members 21a to 21c and 21d to 21f). The adjacent chamber members 21a and 21b, 21b and 21c, 21d and 21e, and 21e and 21f can be joined. In this manner, the chamber member is joined by the seal member, not by welding to form the processing space A, so that even if the atmospheric state and the vacuum state are repeated, the leak hardly occurs.

  In the case of the 10-stage multi-stage vacuum chamber 1 of the present invention shown in FIG. 1, the total weight was 188960 kg, and the size was 6000 mm × 3200 mm × 3600 mm (length × width × depth). On the other hand, in the case of the 10-stage multi-stage vacuum chamber 2 of the present invention shown in FIG. 2, the total weight is 139830 kg, and the size is 4400 mm × 3200 mm × 3600 mm (length × width × depth) as described above. The weight is 0.74 times that of the vacuum chamber 1 of FIG. Therefore, it can be seen that the second multi-stage vacuum chamber 2 of the present invention can be configured more compactly, light in weight, and saved in material.

  In FIG. 2, the chamber members 21a to 21c are stacked on the chamber members 21d to 21f as an example, but the vacuum chamber 2 having five processing spaces A without stacking the chamber members only by the chamber members 21a to 21c. It is also possible to configure. Also in this case, how many processing spaces A are provided in the chamber members 21a to 21c is appropriately determined.

  By the way, in order to use the vacuum chamber 11 and the multistage vacuum chambers 1 and 2, in order to isolate each processing space A from the atmosphere, a member that seals one end of the processing space A and opens and closes the other end is provided. It is necessary to provide it. For example, in the case of the vacuum chamber 2, wall members are provided in the through holes 20 a and 20 d of the chamber members 21 a and 21 d constituting the end of the vacuum chamber 2, and the through holes of the chamber members 21 c and 21 f at the other end are provided. 20c and 20f are preferably provided with lid members that can be freely opened and closed, and each processing space A is preferably constituted by these members. These members are also preferably joined to the chamber member by a sealing member such as an O-ring.

  Since the multistage vacuum chamber 2 described above hardly leaks even when the atmospheric state and the vacuum state are repeated, it can be used, for example, in a multistage load lock chamber for a large substrate. For example, a lid member is joined to each through hole 220a, 20c, 20d, and 20f of the chamber members 21a, 21c, 21d, and 21f constituting the end of the vacuum chamber 2 with a seal member such as an O-ring. Then, a vacuum pump is connected to each processing space A, and the chamber members 21c and 21f are configured to be connected to a substrate transfer chamber, for example. If comprised in this way, after carrying a board | substrate into each process space A from the chamber members 21a and 21d side and setting it as predetermined pressure, the cover member by the side of the board | substrate conveyance chamber will be opened, and it will install in a substrate conveyance chamber. The substrate can be taken out by the robot and transferred to a processing apparatus for performing the next processing.

  The multistage vacuum chamber 2 can also be used in a processing apparatus that performs a pretreatment process. For example, FIG. 5 is a schematic cross-sectional view for explaining the configuration of the degassing apparatus 3 using the vacuum chamber 2 of the present invention, and the same reference numerals are assigned to the same components as those in FIGS. It is.

  Since the deaeration apparatus 3 of the present invention uses each processing space A of the vacuum chamber 2 of the present invention as the deaeration chamber 31, it has a total of 10 stages of deaeration chambers 31. An openable / closable lid member 311 is provided at one end (chamber members 21a, 21d side) of the deaeration chamber 31, and a wall surface member 312 is provided at the other end (chamber members 21c, 21f side). It is configured so that the substrate can be taken out. A mounting table 313 and a heating means 314 are provided at the bottom of each deaeration chamber 31, and the substrate can be vacuum deaerated in the deaeration chamber 31.

  In addition, each deaeration chamber 31 is connected to a dry pump and a turbo molecular pump (not shown), and the inside of each deaeration chamber 31 can be set to a desired pressure.

  It is preferable that a pedestal 32 is provided in the lower part of the vacuum chamber 2 of the deaeration processing apparatus 3 of the present invention, supports the vacuum chamber 2, and stores peripheral devices in the pedestal 32.

  For example, the substrate carried into the deaeration chamber 31 is placed on the mounting table 313, and then the inside of the deaeration chamber 31 is set to a desired pressure (for example, 1 Pa) by a dry pump, and the degree of vacuum is maintained by a turbo molecular pump. However, the substrate S can be heated to 70 ° C. by the heating means 314 and the substrate S can be deaerated. In this case, as the heating means 314, a hot water circulation path may be formed, or a coil heater or a panel heater may be used.

  By using the vacuum chamber of the present invention, it is possible to manufacture a load lock chamber and a processing apparatus for processing a large number of processing substrates. Therefore, it can be used in the field of manufacturing semiconductor devices.

The typical perspective view which shows the structure of the vacuum chamber of this invention. The typical perspective view which shows the structure of the multistage vacuum chamber of this invention. The typical perspective view which shows the structure of the chamber member which comprises the multistage vacuum chamber of this invention. The typical sectional view showing the composition of the multi stage vacuum chamber of the present invention. The typical sectional view showing the vacuum processing device using the multi stage vacuum chamber of the present invention.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Vacuum chamber 2 Vacuum chamber 3 Deaeration processing apparatus 10a-10c Through-hole 11a-11c Chamber member 12 Space 20a-20f Through-hole 21a-21f Chamber member 31 Deaeration chamber 32 Base 111 Side wall part 112 Upper wall part 113 Bottom wall part 211 Side wall portion 212 Upper wall portion 213 Bottom wall portion 214 Groove portion 311 Lid member 312 Wall surface member 313 Mounting table 314 Heating means A Processing space R Ring S Substrate

Claims (5)

  Two or more substantially rectangular parallelepiped chamber members formed with through holes are provided, and a seal member can be mounted on a surface of the chamber members on which one of the through holes of at least one chamber member is formed. A vacuum chamber comprising: a groove formed; a seal member is attached to the groove; and two or more chamber members are joined so that each through hole of an adjacent chamber member communicates.   2. The vacuum chamber according to claim 1, wherein two or more through holes are formed in the chamber member.   The vacuum chamber according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the joined chamber members are stacked in two or more stages.   Two or more substantially rectangular parallelepiped chamber members having two or more through holes are formed, and an O-ring is provided in a groove provided on a surface of the chamber member in which one of the through holes of at least one chamber member is formed. And a vacuum chamber formed by joining adjacent chamber members so that the adjacent through holes communicate with each other, and a lid member is provided in the through hole of the end chamber member. A load lock chamber, wherein a vacuum pump is connected to a processing space formed by communicating with each other. Two or more substantially rectangular parallelepiped chamber members having two or more through holes are formed, and an O-ring is provided in a groove provided on a surface of the chamber member in which one of the through holes of at least one chamber member is formed. And a vacuum chamber is formed by joining adjacent chamber members so that the adjacent through holes communicate with each other, and a wall member is provided in the through hole of the one end chamber member among the end chamber members. A lid member is provided in the through hole of the chamber member at the other end, and a processing space formed by communicating each through hole is connected to a vacuum pump, and a substrate is placed at the bottom of each processing space. A processing apparatus comprising a mounting table for mounting and a heating means for heating the substrate.

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