Apparatus for thermal treatment of substrates
AssigneeASM America, Inc.
InventorIvo Raaijmakers
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Methods and apparatuses are provided for cooling semiconductor substrates prior to handling. In one embodiment, a substrate and support structure combination is lifted after high temperature processing to a cold wall of a thermal processing chamber, which acts as a heat sink. Conductive heat transfer across a small gap from the substrate to the heat sink speeds wafer cooling prior to handling the wafer (e.g., with a robot). In another embodiment, a separate plate is kept cool within a pocket during processing, and is moved close to the substrate and support after processing. In yet another embodiment, a cooling station between a processing chamber and a storage cassette includes two movable cold plates, which are movable to positions closely spaced on either side of the wafer.
Claims5
A processing reactor for high temperature treatment of substrates, the reactor comprising:
- a plurality of walls defining a chemical vapor deposition chamber;
- a movable substrate support structure;
- a heat source for heating a substrate upon the support structure within the chamber;
- a thermal exchange member, wherein the thermal exchange member comprises a wall substantially transparent to radiant heat;
- and
- a drive mechanism capable of moving the support structure between a substrate treatment position and a heat exchange position;
- wherein the support structure supports the substrate during substrate treatment within the chamber at the substrate treatment position, and wherein the support structure also supports the substrate at the thermal exchange position while the substrate is spaced from the thermal exchange member by between about 0.2 mm and 3.0 mm to enable conductive heat transport between the thermal exchange member and the substrate.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.