Film forming apparatus and method, and film modifying apparatus and method
AssigneeTokyo Electron Limited
InventorsHiroshi Shinriki, Masahito Sugiura
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Abstract
A film forming/modifying system includes a film forming apparatus which has an alcohol supply unit and forms a metal oxide film on a semiconductor wafer in a vacuum atmosphere in which a vaporized metal oxide film material and a vaporized alcohol exist, a film modifying apparatus which has a UV irradiation unit for irradiating a UV ray on ozone to generate active oxygen atoms, and modifies the metal oxide film by exposing the metal oxide film to the active oxygen atoms in a vacuum atmosphere, and a common transfer chamber commonly coupled to the film forming apparatus and the film modifying apparatus to transfer the target process object between the film forming apparatus and the film modifying apparatus while maintaining the vacuum state.
Claims38
A film forming apparatus for forming a metal oxide film on a surface of a target process object, comprising:
- a process vessel;
- a mounting table which is accommodated in said process vessel and on which said target process object is to be mounted;
- material supply means for supplying a vaporized metal oxide film material into said process vessel;
- alcohol supply means for supplying a vaporized alcohol into said process vessel;
- a vacuum evacuation system for vacuum-evacuating said process vessel;
- and
- a modification process unit for modifying said metal oxide film formed on said surface of said target process object.
A film forming apparatus for forming a metal oxide film on a surface of a target process object, comprising:
- a process vessel;
- a mounting table which is accommodated in said process vessel and on which said target process object is to be mounted;
- material supply means for supplying a vaporized metal oxide film material into said process vessel;
- alcohol supply means for supplying a vaporized alcohol into said process vessel;
- and
- a vacuum evacuation system for vacuum-evacuating said process vessel,
- wherein said process vessel incorporates an alcohol decomposition catalyst for promoting decomposition of the alcohol.
A film modifying apparatus for modifying a metal oxide film on a target process object, comprising:
- a process vessel;
- a mounting table which is accommodated in said process vessel and on which said target process object is mounted;
- process gas supply means for supplying a process gas containing at least one of oxygen, ozone, and N.sub.2 O gas into said process vessel;
- active oxygen generation means for generating active oxygen atoms from the process gas in an atmosphere of said process vessel;
- a vacuum evacuation system for vacuum-evacuating said process vessel, and
- a film formation process unit for forming said metal oxide film on a surface of said target process object,
- wherein said film formation process unit comprises another process vessel, a mounting table which is accommodated in said another process vessel and on which said target process object is to be mounted, material supply means for supplying a vaporized metal oxide film material into said another process vessel, alcohol supply means for supplying a vaporized alcohol in said another process vessel, and a vacuum evacuation system for vacuum-evacuating said another process vessel.
A film modifying apparatus for modifying a metal oxide film on a target process object, comprising:
- a process vessel;
- a mounting table which is accommodated in said process vessel and on which said target process object is mounted;
- process gas supply means for supplying a process gas containing at least one of oxygen, ozone, and N.sub.2 O gas into said process vessel;
- active oxygen generation means for generating active oxygen atoms from the process gas in an atmosphere of said process vessel;
- and
- a vacuum evacuation system for vacuum-evacuating said process vessel,
- wherein said process gas supply means has a container-shaped lid with a lower open end portion to cover an upper surface of said mounting table, an introduction header unit having injection holes formed on one side of said lid, and a delivery header unit having a delivery port formed on the other side of said lid such that a gas flow is formed in a horizontal direction from said introduction header unit to said delivery header unit.
A film forming/modifying apparatus comprising:
- a film formation process unit for forming a metal oxide film on a target process object in a vacuum atmosphere in which a vaporized metal oxide film material and a vaporized alcohol exist;
- a modification process unit for exposing said metal oxide film to active oxygen atoms in the vacuum atmosphere, thereby modifying said metal oxide film;
- and
- a common transfer chamber commonly coupled to said film formation process unit and said modification process unit to transfer said target process object between said film formation process unit and said modification process unit while keeping the vacuum state.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.