Substrate processing apparatus and method of manufacturing semiconductor device
AssigneeKokusai Electric Corporation
InventorSatoshi Takano
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Abstract
For enhancing productivity, an apparatus comprises a vertical type process furnace configured to simultaneously process N substrates (1<N); a loading chamber provided under the vertical type process furnace and configured to transfer the substrate retainer into or out of the vertical type process furnace; a plurality of single-wafer type process furnaces provided adjacent to the loading chamber, each of the plurality of single-wafer type process furnaces being stacked in at least 2 stages and configured to simultaneously process M substrates (M<N); and a transfer chamber module provided adjacent to the loading chamber and the plurality of the single-wafer type process furnaces and provided with a transfer device.
Claims14
A substrate processing apparatus comprising:
- a vertical type process furnace configured to simultaneously process N substrates accommodated in a substrate retainer, where N is a natural number greater than 1;
- a loading chamber provided under the vertical type process furnace and configured to transfer the substrate retainer into or out of the vertical type process furnace;
- a plurality of single-wafer type process furnaces provided adjacent to the loading chamber and stacked in at least 2 stages, each of the plurality of single-wafer type process furnaces being configured to simultaneously process M substrates, where M is a natural number less than N;
- a transfer chamber module provided adjacent to the loading chamber and the plurality of the single-wafer type process furnaces and provided with a transfer device configured to transfer the substrates;
- and
- a controller configured to operate the vertical type process furnace and the plurality of single-wafer type process furnaces under a condition that a throughput of whole of the plurality of the single-wafer type process furnaces equals or exceeds a throughput of the vertical type process furnace.
A method of manufacturing a semiconductor device comprising:
- (a) simultaneously processing N substrates accommodated in a substrate retainer by a vertical type process furnace, wherein N is a natural number greater than 1;
- (b) transferring the substrate retainer to a loading chamber provided under the vertical type process furnace;
- and
- (c) processing the N substrates by a plurality of single-wafer type process furnaces provided adjacent to the loading chamber, each of the plurality of single-wafer type process furnaces being stacked in at least 2 stages and configured to simultaneously process M substrates, wherein M is a natural number less than N,
- wherein (a) and (c) are performed under a condition that a throughput of whole of the plurality of the single-wafer type process furnaces equals or exceeds a throughput of the vertical type process furnace.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.