Rotatable and tunable heaters for semiconductor furnace
AssigneeTalwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., Ltd.
InventorsZin-Chang WEI, Hsin-Hsien Wu, Chun-Lin Chang
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Abstract
A semiconductor furnace suitable for chemical vapor deposition processing of wafers. The furnace includes a thermal reaction chamber having a top, a bottom, a sidewall, and an internal cavity for removably holding a batch of vertically stacked wafers. A heating system is provided that includes a plurality of rotatable heaters arranged and operative to heat the chamber. In one embodiment, spacing between the sidewall heaters is adjustable. The heating system controls temperature variations within the chamber and promotes uniform film deposit thickness on the wafers.
Claims20
A semiconductor furnace comprising:
- a vertical thermal reaction chamber having a sidewall defining a height and an internal cavity for removably holding a batch of wafers;
- a wafer boat positionable in the reaction chamber and being configured and adapted to hold a plurality of wafers in vertically-stacked relationship;
- and
- a heating system comprising a plurality of rotatable sidewall heaters spaced along the height of the reaction chamber, the sidewall heaters being rotatable with respect to the reaction chamber about a rotational axis.
A semiconductor furnace comprising:
- a vertical thermal reaction chamber having a sidewall defining a height and an internal cavity for removably holding a batch of wafers;
- a wafer boat positionable in the reaction chamber and being configured and adapted to hold a plurality of wafers in vertically-stacked relationship;
- and
- a heating system comprising a plurality of sidewall heaters spaced vertically along the height of the reaction chamber, the spacing between the sidewall heaters being adjustable for optimizing temperature profiles within the reaction chamber.
A method for forming a layer of material on a semiconductor wafer comprising:
- providing a semiconductor furnace including a vertical thermal reaction chamber having a sidewall defining having a height and an internal cavity for removably holding a batch of wafers, the semiconductor furnace further including a heating system comprising a plurality of rotatable sidewall heaters spaced along the height of the reaction chamber;
- inserting a wafer boat holding a plurality of vertically-stacked wafers into the reaction chamber;
- rotating at least one of the sidewall heaters with respect to the reaction chamber;
- and
- forming a film of material on each wafer.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.