Atmospheric pressure CVD apparatus

An atmospheric pressure CVD apparatus comprising:

• an upper convey mechanism for horizontally conveying a susceptor to be mounted with a semiconductor wafer, said upper convey mechanism having a wafer loader mechanism, an upper rail, an upper susceptor driving portion, a heater, a dispersion head, and a wafer unloader mechanism;
• a lower convey mechanism arranged below said upper convey mechanism to horizontally convey said susceptor, said lower convey mechanism having a first lower rail, a first lower susceptor driving portion, a plasma reaction portion, a second lower rail, and a second lower susceptor driving portion;
• a loader susceptor up mechanism for moving up and conveying said susceptor from said lower convey mechanism to said upper convey mechanism;
• and
• a loader susceptor down mechanism for moving down and conveying said susceptor from said upper convey mechanism to said lower convey mechanism, and
• wherein, in said upper convey mechanism, said wafer loader mechanism mounts said semiconductor wafer on said susceptor moved up and conveyed from said lower convey mechanism by said loader susceptor up mechanism, said upper susceptor driving portion conveys said susceptor mounted with said semiconductor wafer to said loader susceptor down mechanism along said upper rail, a thin CVD (Chemical Vapor Deposition) film is formed on a surface of said semiconductor wafer heated to a predetermined temperature by said heater, using a reaction gas through said dispersion head in the conveying process, and said wafer unloader mechanism removes said semiconductor wafer on which the thin CVD film is formed, from said susceptor before conveyance to said loader susceptor down mechanism;
• and
• in said lower convey mechanism, said first lower susceptor driving portion conveys said susceptor moved down by said loader susceptor down mechanism, to said plasma reaction portion along said first lower rail, said plasma reaction portion cleans the thin CVD film formed on said susceptor, and said second lower susceptor driving portion conveys said cleaned susceptor to said loader susceptor up mechanism along said second lower rail.