JP2006295032A - Substrate processing equipment - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide substrate processing equipment which easily performs a wet cleaning of treatment pipe. <P>SOLUTION: The equipment comprises: a heating means 207 for heating a substrate 200; a treatment pipe 203, in which a cross-section is profiled in roughly circle for housing the above-mentioned substrate; at least one of capillaries 232a, 232b, 275 prepared in the treatment pipe with ends projecting outside from the outer wall of the treatment pipe; a processing gas supplying system 230 supplying a processing gas inside the above-mentioned treatment pipe through at least one of the capillaries; and an exhaust system 240 exhausting an inside of the above-mentioned treatment pipe through an exhaust port 231 prepared in the above-mentioned treatment pipe. The above-mentioned capillaries and exhaust port are arranged within roughly 180° in a circumference direction of the above-mentioned treatment pipe. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2007,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a substrate processing apparatus for performing substrate processing such as thin film generation processing, diffusion processing, and annealing processing on a substrate such as a silicon wafer.

  As the substrate processing apparatus, there is a single-wafer type substrate processing apparatus that performs processing one by one, or a batch type substrate processing apparatus that processes a predetermined number of substrates at a time. The substrate processing apparatus includes a processing tube that defines a processing chamber for processing a substrate, that is, a reaction tube made of quartz, stores the substrate in the processing chamber, and heats the processing gas while maintaining the substrate at a processing temperature. While introducing and evacuating and maintaining the processing pressure, processing such as formation of a thin film is performed.

  A reaction tube used in a batch type substrate processing apparatus has a cylindrical shape in which substrates held in multiple stages by a substrate holder (boat) are accommodated and the upper end is substantially closed. The reaction tube is provided with various fine tubes made of quartz. For example, a plurality of thin tubes such as a thin tube into which a temperature detector such as a thermocouple for monitoring the temperature of the processing chamber is inserted, a thin tube into which an electrode for generating plasma is inserted, and a thin tube for introducing processing gas are provided. It has been.

  6 and 7 show a conventional reaction tube 1, and the thin tube 2 is usually provided in a state of extending upward along the wall surface of the reaction tube 1, and the upper end is closed. The lower part of the narrow tube 2 penetrates the lower part of the reaction tube 1 obliquely downward and extends to the outside, and the penetration part with the reaction tube 1 is hermetically fixed by welding or the like and extends outward from the reaction tube 1. The outer end of the protruding part is open.

  Further, an exhaust port 3 is provided at a required lower position of the reaction tube 1 and is connected to an exhaust device (not shown).

  Conventionally, the narrow tube 2 is determined by a member housed therein, and the penetrating position and the position where the thin tube 2 is provided are also determined by workability when the reaction tube 1 is assembled, maintainability after assembly, and the like. .

  Conventionally, the substrate treatment using the reaction tube 1 is diffusion treatment or oxidation treatment. When the substrate treatment is diffusion treatment, oxidation treatment or the like, a thin film of reaction products is not formed on the inner surface of the reaction tube 1. The shape of the thin tube 2, the position where the thin tube 2 is provided, and the like only have to be taken into consideration only the above workability and maintainability. Also, the shape of the thin tube 2 to be mounted is generally an easily available standard product, for example, a 1/4 ″ tube having an outer diameter of 1/4 ″, 3/8 ″, or a 3/8 ″ tube. is there.

  However, when the film formation process such as the CVD film formation process is performed in the reaction tube 1 described above, the reaction product adheres not only to the substrate surface but also to the inner surface of the reaction tube 1. When the amount of deposited and deposited reaction products increases, it will eventually peel off and float as particles, contaminating the substrate. Contamination of the substrate leads to a decrease in substrate processing quality and a decrease in yield. Therefore, it is necessary to perform cleaning for removing a reaction product adhered and deposited on the inner surface of the reaction tube 1 every predetermined operation time.

  One of the cleaning methods is wet cleaning using a liquid such as water or an organic solvent, and wet cleaning is also used for cleaning the reaction tube 1.

  As described above, the attachment of the thin tube 2 in the conventional reaction tube 1 takes into consideration only workability and maintainability, and therefore causes inconvenience when performing wet cleaning. For example, the cleaning needs to be performed on the inside of the thin tube 2, the cleaning liquid must be allowed to flow into the thin tube 2, and the cleaning liquid that has flowed into the thin tube 2 must be discharged. Usually, the reaction tube 1 is automatically washed sideways, but the shape of the thin tube 2 has a bent portion, and in particular, the portion of the thin tube 2 that penetrates the reaction tube 1 is the axis of the reaction tube 1. In some cases, the opening of the proximal end of the thin tube 2 faces upward in the cleaning posture of the reaction tube 1.

  For this reason, in order to discharge the cleaning liquid from all the thin tubes 2, the posture of the reaction tube 1 must be changed, for example, by rotating or tilting, and there is a problem in terms of safety and work efficiency.

  When a 3/8 ″ tube is used, the wall thickness is 1 mm and the inner diameter is 7.52 mm. However, if the inner diameter is small, the cleaning liquid cannot enter the capillary due to the capillary action of the cleaning liquid. Or the phenomenon that the liquid which entered does not come out occurred, causing the cleaning to be complicated.

  In view of such circumstances, the present invention provides a substrate processing apparatus that can easily perform wet cleaning of a processing tube.

  The present invention includes a heating means for heating a substrate, a processing tube having a substantially circular cross section for storing the substrate, and at least one thin tube provided on the processing tube and having an end protruding outward from an outer wall of the processing tube. A processing gas supply system for supplying a processing gas into the processing tube through at least one of the narrow tubes, and an exhaust system for exhausting the processing tube through an exhaust port provided in the processing tube, The thin tube and the exhaust port relate to a substrate processing apparatus provided in a range of about 180 ° in a circumferential direction of the processing tube.

  According to the present invention, the heating means for heating the substrate, the processing tube having a substantially circular cross section for storing the substrate, and at least one of the end portions of the processing tube that protrude outward from the outer wall of the processing tube A narrow tube, a processing gas supply system for supplying a processing gas into the processing tube through at least one of the thin tubes, and an exhaust system for exhausting the processing tube through an exhaust port provided in the processing tube. In addition, since the narrow tube and the exhaust port are provided within a range of about 180 ° in the circumferential direction of the processing tube, the cleaning tube can be cleaned so that the opening of the thin tube does not face upward during cleaning. The cleaning liquid can be easily discharged from the thin tube, and the excellent effect of improving the efficiency of the cleaning operation is exhibited.

  The best mode for carrying out the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

  First, referring to FIG. 1, an outline of a substrate processing apparatus as an example of a substrate processing apparatus to which the present invention is applied will be described.

  A cassette stage 105 is provided on the front side of the inside of the housing 101 as a holding member transfer member that transfers the cassette 100 as a substrate storage container to and from an external transfer device (not shown). Is provided with a cassette elevator 115 as an elevating means, and a cassette transfer machine 114 as a conveying means is attached to the cassette elevator 115. Further, a cassette shelf 109 as a mounting means for the cassette 100 is provided on the rear side of the cassette elevator 115 and a spare cassette shelf 110 is also provided above the cassette stage 105. A clean unit 118 is provided above the spare cassette shelf 110 so as to distribute clean air through the inside of the casing 101.

  A processing furnace 202 is provided above the rear portion of the casing 101, and a boat 217 serving as a substrate holding unit that holds the wafers 200 as substrates in multiple stages in a horizontal posture is provided below the processing furnace 202. A boat elevator 121 is provided as an elevating means for moving up and down, and a seal cap 219 as a lid is attached to the tip of an elevating member 122 attached to the boat elevator 121 to support the boat 217 vertically. . Between the boat elevator 121 and the cassette shelf 109, a transfer elevator 113 as an elevating means is provided, and a wafer transfer machine 112 as a transfer means is attached to the transfer elevator 113. Further, a furnace port shutter 116 as a shielding member having an opening / closing mechanism and closing the lower surface of the processing furnace 202 is provided on the upper side of the boat elevator 121.

  The cassette 100 loaded with the wafer 200 is rotated 90 ° on the cassette stage 105 so that the wafer 200 is loaded in an upward posture from an external transfer device (not shown) onto the cassette stage 105 and the wafer 200 is in a horizontal posture. Be made. Further, the cassette 100 is moved from the cassette stage 105 to the cassette shelf 109 or the spare cassette shelf 110 by cooperation of the raising / lowering operation of the cassette elevator 115, the transverse operation, the advance / retreat operation of the cassette transfer machine 114, and the rotation operation. Be transported.

  The cassette shelf 109 has a transfer shelf 123 in which the cassette 100 to be transferred by the wafer transfer machine 112 is stored. The cassette 100 to which the wafer 200 is transferred is the cassette elevator 115, The cassette is transferred to the transfer shelf 123 by the cassette transfer device 114.

  When the cassette 100 is transferred to the transfer shelf 123, the cassette 100 is lowered from the transfer shelf 123 by the cooperation of the advance / retreat operation, the rotation operation, and the lifting / lowering operation of the transfer elevator 113. The wafer 200 is transferred to the boat 217.

  When a predetermined number of the wafers 200 are transferred to the boat 217, the boat 217 is loaded into the processing furnace 202 by the boat elevator 121, and the processing furnace 202 is airtightly closed by the seal cap 219. In the processing furnace 202 that is hermetically closed, the wafer 200 is heated and a processing gas is supplied into the processing furnace 202 to process the wafer 200.

  When the processing on the wafer 200 is completed, the wafer 200 is transferred from the boat 217 to the cassette 100 of the transfer shelf 123 by the reverse procedure of the above-described operation, and the cassette 100 is transferred to the cassette transfer machine. 114 is transferred from the transfer shelf 123 to the cassette stage 105 and is carried out of the housing 101 by an external transfer device (not shown). The furnace port shutter 116 closes the lower surface of the processing furnace 202 when the boat 217 is in a lowered state, and prevents outside air from being caught in the processing furnace 202.

  The transfer operation of the cassette transfer machine 114 and the like is controlled by the control unit 124.

  Next, a film forming process using the ALD method, which is one of the CVD methods, will be briefly described as an example of a process process for a substrate such as a wafer in the embodiment of the present invention.

  In the ALD method, two types (or more) of raw material gases used for film formation are alternately supplied onto the substrate under the required film formation conditions (temperature, time, etc.). In this method, the film is formed by adsorbing in units and utilizing surface reaction.

  For example, in the case of forming a SiN (silicon nitride) film, high quality film formation is possible at a low temperature of 300 ° C. to 600 ° C. using DCS (SiH 2 Cl 2, dichlorosilane) and NH 3 (ammonia) in the ALD method. The gas supply alternately supplies a plurality of types of reaction gases one by one. And film thickness control is controlled by the cycle number of reaction gas supply. (For example, assuming that the film formation rate is 1 mm / cycle, the process is performed 20 cycles when a film of 20 mm is formed.)

  Hereinafter, the processing furnace 202 will be described in detail with reference to FIGS.

  A reaction tube 203 that defines a processing chamber 201 for processing the wafer 200 that is a substrate is provided inside a heater 207 that is a heating means, and a lower end opening of the reaction tube 203 is formed by the seal cap 219 that is a lid. The processing furnace 202 is formed by at least the heater 207, the reaction tube 203, and the seal cap 219, which are hermetically closed through an O-ring 220 that is an airtight member.

  The seal cap 219 is provided with the boat 217, which is a substrate holding means, through a quartz cap 218, and the quartz cap 218 serves as a holding body for holding the boat 217. The boat 217 is loaded into the processing chamber 201 by the boat elevator 121. A plurality of the wafers 200 to be batch-processed are stacked on the boat 217 in a horizontal posture in multiple stages in the tube axis direction. The heater 207 heats the wafer 200 loaded in the processing chamber 201 to a predetermined temperature.

  The processing chamber 201 is provided with two gas supply pipes 232a and 232b as supply pipes for supplying two kinds of gases, here two kinds of gases, and the first gas supply pipe 232a is a flow control means. The reaction gas is supplied to the processing chamber 201 through the first mass flow controller 241a and the first valve 243a which is an on-off valve, and further through a buffer chamber 237 formed in the processing chamber 201, which will be described later. From the second gas supply pipe 232b, a second mass flow controller 241b which is a flow control means, a second valve 243b which is an on-off valve, a gas reservoir 247, and a third valve 243c which is an on-off valve will be described later. A reactive gas is supplied to the processing chamber 201 via a gas supply unit 249. The gas supply pipes 232a and 232b, the mass flow controllers 241a and 241b, etc. constitute a processing gas supply system 230.

  The processing furnace 202 is connected to a vacuum pump 246 as exhaust means through a fourth valve 243d by a gas exhaust pipe 231 for exhausting gas, and is evacuated. The fourth valve 243d is an open / close valve that can open and close the valve to stop evacuation / evacuation of the processing chamber 201, and further adjust the valve opening to adjust the pressure. The gas exhaust pipe 231, the vacuum pump 246 and the like constitute an exhaust system 240.

  In the arc-shaped space formed between the inner wall of the reaction tube 203 and the wafer 200, the buffer chamber, which is a gas dispersion space, extends along the tube axis direction from the lower wall to the upper wall of the reaction tube 203. 237 is provided, and a first gas supply hole 248 a for supplying gas is provided on a wall surface of the buffer chamber 237 facing the wafer 200. The first gas supply hole 248 a opens toward the center of the reaction tube 203. The first gas supply holes 248a have the same opening area from the lower part to the upper part, and are provided at the same opening pitch.

  At the end of the buffer chamber 237 opposite to the end where the first gas supply hole 248a is provided, a nozzle 233 is disposed along the tube axis from the bottom to the top of the reaction tube 203. Yes. The nozzle 233 is provided with second gas supply holes 248b which are a plurality of supply holes for supplying reaction gas. When the differential pressure between the buffer chamber 237 and the processing chamber 201 is small, the second gas supply hole 248b may have the same opening area and the same opening pitch from the upstream side to the downstream side. When the differential pressure is large, the opening area may be increased from the upstream side toward the downstream side, or the opening pitch may be decreased.

  By adjusting the opening area and the opening pitch of the second gas supply holes 248b from the upstream side to the downstream side, there is a difference in gas flow velocity from each of the second gas supply holes 248b, but the flow rate is substantially the same. A reactive gas is ejected. Then, the gas ejected from each second gas supply hole 248b is ejected into the buffer chamber 237 and introduced once, and the flow rate difference of the reaction gas is made uniform.

  In the buffer chamber 237, the reaction gas ejected from the second gas supply holes 248b is treated by the first gas supply holes 248a after the particle velocity of each gas is relaxed in the buffer chamber 237. It spouts into the chamber 201. When the reaction gas ejected from each of the second gas supply holes 248b was ejected from each of the first gas supply holes 248a, a gas having a uniform flow rate and flow velocity could be obtained.

  In the buffer chamber 237, a first rod-shaped electrode 269 that is a first electrode having an elongated structure and a second rod-shaped electrode 270 that is a second electrode are protective tubes that protect the electrode from the top to the bottom. Protected by the electrode protection tube 275, either the first rod-shaped electrode 269 or the second rod-shaped electrode 270 is connected to the high-frequency power source 273 via the matching device 272, and the other is at the reference potential. Connected to some ground. When high frequency power is applied between the first rod-shaped electrode 269 and the second rod-shaped electrode 270, plasma is generated in the plasma generation region 224 between the first rod-shaped electrode 269 and the second rod-shaped electrode 270. Is done.

  The electrode protection tube 275 has a structure in which each of the first rod-shaped electrode 269 and the second rod-shaped electrode 270 can be inserted into the buffer chamber 237 while being isolated from the atmosphere of the buffer chamber 237. If the inside of the electrode protection tube 275 has the same atmosphere as the outside air (atmosphere), the first rod-shaped electrode 269 and the second rod-shaped electrode 270 inserted into the electrode protection tube 275 are heated by the heater 207. It will be oxidized. Therefore, the inside of the electrode protection tube 275 is filled or purged with an inert gas such as nitrogen to prevent the oxidation of the first rod-shaped electrode 269 or the second rod-shaped electrode 270 by suppressing the oxygen concentration sufficiently low. An inert gas purge mechanism is provided.

  A gas supply unit 249 is provided on the inner wall of the reaction tube 203 that is rotated about 120 ° from the position of the first gas supply hole 248a. The gas supply unit 249 is a supply unit that shares the gas supply species with the buffer chamber 237 when a plurality of types of gases are alternately supplied to the wafer 200 one by one in the film formation by the ALD method.

  Similarly to the buffer chamber 237, the gas supply unit 249 has third gas supply holes 248c that are gas supply holes at the same pitch at positions adjacent to the wafer 200, and the second gas is provided at the lower part. It is connected to the supply pipe 232b.

  If the differential pressure between the buffer chamber 237 and the processing chamber 201 is small, the third gas supply hole 248c may have the same opening area and the same opening pitch from the upstream side to the downstream side. When the differential pressure is large, the opening area should be increased from the upstream side toward the downstream side, or the opening pitch should be reduced.

  As the thin tubes used for the reaction tube 203 such as the gas supply tubes 232a and 232b and the electrode protection tube 275, a tube having an inner diameter of 8 mm to 13 mm is selected. The range in which the gas supply pipes 232a and 232b, the electrode protection pipe 275, and the gas exhaust pipe 231 are provided is provided in the lower part of the reaction pipe 203 and in the range of about 180 ° in the circumference.

  The boat 217 is accommodated in the center of the reaction tube 203, and the boat 217 is attached to and detached from the reaction tube 203 by the boat elevator 121. Further, in order to improve the uniformity of processing, a boat rotating mechanism 267 is provided as a rotating means for rotating the boat 217. By driving the boat rotating mechanism 267, the boat 217 is rotated. It has become.

  The control unit 124 serving as a control means includes the first and second mass flow controllers 241a and 241b, the first to fourth valves 243a, 243b, 243c and 243d, the heater 207, the vacuum pump 246, and the boat. The rotating mechanism 267, the boat lifting mechanism not shown in the figure, the high-frequency power source 273, and the matching unit 272 are connected to adjust the flow rate of the first and second mass flow controllers 241a and 241b, and the first to third Opening / closing operation of the valves 243a, 243b, 243c, opening / closing and pressure adjusting operation of the fourth valve 243d, temperature adjustment of the heater 207, start / stop of the vacuum pump 246, adjustment of rotation speed of the boat rotation mechanism 267, Elevating operation control of the boat elevating mechanism, power supply control of the high frequency power supply 273, the matching unit 27 Impedance control by is performed.

  Next, an example of film formation by the ALD method will be described using an example of forming a SiN film using DCS and NH3 gas.

  First, the wafer 200 to be deposited is loaded into the boat 217 and loaded into the processing furnace 202. After carrying in, the following three steps are sequentially executed.

[Step 1]
In step 1, NH3 gas that requires plasma excitation and DCS gas that does not require plasma excitation are allowed to flow in parallel.

  First, the first valve 243a provided in the first gas supply pipe 232a and the fourth valve 243d provided in the gas exhaust pipe 231 are both opened, and the first gas supply pipe 232a and the fourth valve 243d are opened. NH 3 gas whose flow rate is adjusted by one mass flow controller 243 a is jetted from the second gas supply hole 248 b of the nozzle 233 to the buffer chamber 237, and between the first rod electrode 269 and the second rod electrode 270. Then, high frequency power is applied from the high frequency power source 273 via the matching unit 272 to excite NH3 plasma, and exhausted from the gas exhaust pipe 231 while being supplied to the processing chamber 201 as active species.

  When flowing NH3 gas as an active species by plasma excitation, the pressure in the processing chamber 201 is set to 10 to 100 Pa by appropriately adjusting the fourth valve 243d. The supply flow rate of NH3 controlled by the first mass flow controller 241a is 1000 to 10000 sccm. The time for which the wafer 200 is exposed to the active species obtained by plasma excitation of NH3 is 2 to 120 seconds. At this time, the temperature of the heater 207 is set so that the wafer 200 has a temperature of 300 ° C. to 600 ° C. Since NH3 has a high reaction temperature, it does not react at the above-mentioned wafer temperature. Therefore, it is made to flow as an active species by plasma excitation, and processing can be performed with the wafer temperature kept in a set low temperature range.

  When NH3 is supplied as an active species by plasma excitation, the second valve 243b on the upstream side of the second gas supply pipe 232b is opened, the third valve 243c on the downstream side is closed, DCS is also flowed. DCS is stored in the gas reservoir 247 provided between the second and third valves 243b and 243c. At this time, the gas flowing in the processing chamber 201 is an active species obtained by plasma excitation of NH3, and DCS does not exist. Accordingly, NH3 does not cause a gas phase reaction, and NH3 excited by plasma to become active species reacts with the underlying film on the wafer 200.

[Step 2]
In step 2, the first valve 243a of the first gas supply pipe 232a is closed to stop the supply of NH3, but the supply of DCS to the gas reservoir 247 is continued.

  When a predetermined pressure and a predetermined amount of DCS are accumulated in the gas reservoir 247, the second valve 243b on the upstream side is also closed, and the DCS is confined in the gas reservoir 247. Further, the fourth valve 243d of the gas exhaust pipe 231 is kept open, and the processing chamber 201 is evacuated to 20 Pa or less by the vacuum pump 246, and residual NH3 is removed from the processing chamber 201. At this time, if an inert gas such as N2 is supplied to the processing chamber 201, the effect of eliminating residual NH3 is further enhanced.

DCS is stored in the gas reservoir 247 so that the pressure is 20000 Pa or more. The apparatus is configured so that the conductance between the gas reservoir 247 and the processing chamber 201 is 1.5 × 10 ⁻³ m ³ / s or more. Considering the ratio between the volume of the reaction tube 203 and the required volume of the gas reservoir 247, the volume of the reaction tube 203 is preferably 100 to 300 cc when the volume of the reaction tube 203 is 100 liters. The volume ratio of the gas reservoir 247 is preferably 1/1000 to 3/1000 times the volume of the reaction chamber 203.

[Step 3]
In step 3, when the exhaust of the processing chamber 201 is completed, the fourth valve 243d of the gas exhaust pipe 231 is closed to stop the exhaust. The third valve 243c on the downstream side of the second gas supply pipe 232b is opened. As a result, the DCS stored in the gas reservoir 247 is supplied to the processing chamber 201 at once. At this time, since the fourth valve 243d of the gas exhaust pipe 231 is closed, the pressure in the processing chamber 201 is rapidly increased to about 931 Pa (7 Torr). The time for supplying DCS was set to 2 to 4 seconds, and then the time for exposing the wafer 200 to the elevated pressure atmosphere was set to 2 to 4 seconds, for a total of 6 seconds. The wafer temperature at this time is 300 to 600 ° C. as in the case of supplying NH 3. By supplying DCS, NH3 and DCS on the base film react with each other to form a SiN film on the wafer 200. After the film formation, the third valve 243c is closed, the fourth valve 243d is opened, and the processing chamber 201 is evacuated to remove the remaining gas after contributing to the film formation of DCS. At this time, if an inert gas such as N2 is supplied to the processing chamber 201, the effect of removing the remaining gas that has contributed to the deposition of DCS from the processing chamber 201 is enhanced. Further, the second valve 243b is opened to start supplying DCS to the gas reservoir 247.

  Steps 1 to 3 are defined as one cycle, and the SiN film having a predetermined thickness is formed on the wafer 200 by repeating the cycle a plurality of times.

  In the ALD method, the reaction gas is adsorbed on the surface of the base film. The adsorption amount of the reaction gas is proportional to the gas pressure and the gas exposure time. Therefore, in order to adsorb a desired amount of reaction gas in a short time, it is necessary to increase the gas pressure in a short time. In this embodiment, since the DCS stored in the gas reservoir 247 is instantaneously supplied after the fourth valve 243d is closed, the pressure of the DCS in the processing chamber 201 is rapidly increased. The desired amount of reaction gas can be instantaneously adsorbed.

  Further, in the present embodiment, while DCS is stored in the gas reservoir 247, NH3 gas, which is a necessary step in the ALD method, is excited as plasma to be supplied as active species, and the processing chamber 201 is exhausted. As a result, no special steps are required to store the DCS. Further, since the inside of the processing chamber 201 is exhausted to remove NH3 gas and then DCS is flown, both do not react on the way to the wafer 200. The supplied DCS can be effectively reacted only with NH3 adsorbed on the wafer 200.

  By performing the film forming process, reaction products adhere to and deposit on the inner surface of the reaction tube 203, the gas supply tubes 232a and 232b, the electrode protection tube 275, and the like, and are periodically or predeterminedly operated. The reaction tube 203 is cleaned every hour.

  The cleaning is performed by wet cleaning using a cleaning liquid in a state where the reaction tube 203 is tilted horizontally. At this time, the posture of the reaction tube 203 is set so that at least thin tubes such as the electrode protection tube 275 and the gas supply tubes 232a and 232b are on the lower side.

  Since the thin tubes such as the gas supply tubes 232a and 232b and the electrode protection tube 275 are washed downward, the cleaning liquid can be easily discharged from the open end, and the inner diameter is 8 mm or more. Without being affected by the phenomenon, the cleaning liquid can be discharged without staying in the narrow tube.

  Further, since the gas supply pipes 232a and 232b, the electrode protection pipe 275, and the gas exhaust pipe 231 are provided in the reaction tube 203 within a range of approximately 180 ° in circumference, the position of the narrow tube is set in the cleaning process. There is no need to change the posture such as rotating the reaction tube 203 in order to change the position.

  4 and 5 show a second embodiment.

  In the second embodiment, the gas exhaust pipe 231 and the narrow pipes 281, 282, 283, 284, 285, 286, and 287 having an inner diameter of 8 mm or more are arranged radially, and the circumference of the gas exhaust pipe 231 is in a range of approximately 120 °. The case where it is provided is shown. In the present embodiment, the narrow tubes 281, 282, 283, 284, 285, 286 and 287 are of the same standard, and by using the same standard, acquisition and management of materials are possible. In addition, since no thin capillaries are used, the strength of the capillaries can be ensured, and handling is facilitated.

  In the second embodiment, the openings of the gas exhaust pipe 231 and the narrow pipes 281, 282, 283, 284, 285, 286 and 287 can all be directed downward at the time of cleaning, so that the cleaning operation is made easier. And efficient.

(Appendix)
The present invention includes the following embodiments.

  (Appendix 1) Heating means for heating the substrate, a processing tube having a substantially circular cross section to store the substrate, and at least one thin tube provided on the processing tube and having an end protruding outward from the outer wall of the processing tube; A processing gas supply system for supplying a processing gas into the processing pipe via at least one of the narrow pipes, and an exhaust system for exhausting the processing pipe through an exhaust port provided in the processing pipe, A substrate processing apparatus, wherein an inner diameter of the narrow tube is 8 mm or more.

It is a schematic perspective view which shows an example of the substrate processing apparatus by which this invention is implemented. It is a schematic block diagram of the vertical substrate processing furnace which concerns on this Embodiment. It is a schematic cross-sectional view of the vertical type substrate processing furnace according to the same embodiment as before. It is an elevation sectional view of a reaction tube showing a 2nd embodiment of the present invention. It is a plane sectional view of the reaction tube. It is an elevation sectional view of a reaction tube in a conventional substrate processing apparatus. FIG.

Explanation of symbols

200 Wafer 202 Processing furnace 203 Reaction tube 207 Heater 230 Processing gas supply system 231 Gas exhaust tube 232a First gas supply tube 232b Second gas supply tube 233 Nozzle 237 Buffer chamber 240 Exhaust system 275 Electrode protection tube

Claims (1)

  A heating means for heating the substrate; a processing tube having a substantially circular cross section for housing the substrate; at least one narrow tube provided on the processing tube with an end projecting outward from an outer wall of the processing tube; A processing gas supply system for supplying a processing gas into the processing pipe through at least one; and an exhaust system for exhausting the processing pipe through an exhaust port provided in the processing pipe; A substrate processing apparatus, wherein an exhaust port is provided in a range within about 180 ° in a circumferential direction of the processing tube.

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