Substrate cooling system and method
AssigneeASM America, Inc.
InventorThomas W. Aswad
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A method and apparatus is disclosed for staging or cooling a substrate between high temperature thermal processing steps. In the disclosed embodiment, one or more cooling stations are located off-line within a wafer handling chamber, outside the thermal processing chamber. After thermal processing, a hot wafer can be loaded on to one station, where the wafer is subjected to forced convection cooling. In particular, the wafer is subjected to cooling gas from above and below through perforated upper and lower showerhead assemblies. The wafer can thus be cooled rapidly on a station while other wafers are transferred into and out of the processing chamber. Desirably, the wafer is cooled on the station to a point at which it can be handled by a low temperature wafer handler and stored in a low temperature cassette.
Claims19
An apparatus for cooling a semiconductor wafer after a high temperature processing comprising:
- a wafer handling chamber having a port through which a wafer may be moved to and from a storage area into a handling chamber, and having a port through which the wafer may be moved from the handling chamber into or out of a high temperature processing chamber;
- an automatic wafer handler for transporting a wafer into and out of the process chamber;
- and
- a fixed cooling station within the wafer handling chamber on which a processed first wafer may be moved to be cooled before being returned to the storage area, the station being positioned to enable a second wafer to be placed in the process chamber while the first wafer is being cooled.
A method of handling substrates for semiconductor processing, comprising:
- providing a substrate handler in a handling chamber, the substrate handler capable of transporting substrates into and out of a high temperature process chamber;
- withdrawing a processed first substrate from the process chamber with the substrate handler;
- transporting the first substrate onto a cooling station within and open to the handling chamber;
- removing a second substrate from a staging station within and open to the handling chamber;
- and
- inserting the second substrate into the process chamber with the handler while the first substrate is on the cooling station.
An apparatus for cooling substrates after a high temperature processing, comprising:
- a substrate handling chamber having a port through which substrates may be moved between the handling chamber and a high temperature process chamber;
- an automatic substrate handler for transporting substrates into and out of the process chamber;
- a fixed first cooling station positioned within and open to the substrate handling chamber;
- and
- a fixed second cooling station positioned within and open to the substrate handling chamber.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.