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AssigneeTokyo Electron Limited
InventorsMitsuru Yamazaki, Barry Clarke, Jattie Van Der Linde, Makoto Saito, Kazuyoshi Sugawara, Toshiji Abe, Tadashi Enomoto
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Disclosed is a magnetic annealing apparatus including a processing container that performs a magnetic annealing processing on a plurality of substrates accommodated therein in a magnetic field; a substrate holder that holds the plurality of substrates substantially horizontally in the processing container; a division heater including a plurality of sub-division heaters and covering a substantially entire circumferential surface of an outer periphery of a predetermined region of the processing container along a longitudinal direction; a magnet installed to cover an outside of the division heater; and a controller configured to feedback-control a temperature of a predetermined control target heater among the plurality of sub-division heaters, and to control temperatures of the plurality of sub-division heaters other than the predetermined control target heater based on a control output obtained by multiplying a control output of the predetermined control target heater and a predetermined ratio.
A magnetic annealing apparatus comprising:
A magnetic annealing method of annealing a plurality of substrates in a magnetic field, the method comprising:
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.
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No references of this kind are recorded.
Chamber type furnaces: specially adapted for treating semiconductor wafers
Arrangement of elements for electric heating in or on furnaces: with electromagnetic fields acting directly on the material being heated
Subject matter not provided for in other groups of this subclass: heating elements or systems
Galvanomagnetic devices: manufacture or treatment
About 9 years 2 months of term left · ends 7 Jan 2036 (estimated)
This application is based on and claims priority from Japanese Patent Application No. 2014-176436, filed on Aug. 29, 2014 with the Japan Patent Office, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein in its entirety by reference.
The present disclosure relates to a magnetic annealing apparatus and a magnetic annealing method.
A magnetic random access memory (MRAM), which is one of non-volatile memories, recently attracts attention as a next generation semiconductor memory device. The MRAM is fabricated by performing a heat treatment (magnetic annealing) on a magnetic material film formed on a workpiece to be processed (“workpiece”) which is, for example, a semiconductor wafer (“wafer”) in a strong magnetic field to exhibit a magnetic property of the material film.
FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional view illustrating a whole configuration of a magnetic annealing apparatus.
FIG. 2 is a view illustrating an exemplary configuration of a boat loader. In FIG. 2, (a) is a perspective view illustrating the entire configuration of the boat loader, and (b) is a view illustrating a configuration of a heat shielding plate in an enlarged scale.
FIGS. 3A to 3C are views illustrating a relationship between a heater 110 and a processing container 100 in a magnetic annealing apparatus 230 according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure. FIG. 3A is a front view the inside of the heater of the magnetic annealing apparatus according to the exemplary embodiment. FIG. 3B is a side view of the heater of the magnetic annealing apparatus according to the exemplary embodiment. FIG. 3C is a perspective view of the inside of the heater of the magnetic annealing apparatus according to the exemplary embodiment.
In the following detailed description, reference is made to the accompanying drawing, which form a part hereof. The illustrative embodiments described in the detailed description, drawing, and claims are not meant to be limiting. Other embodiments may be utilized, and other changes may be made, without departing from the spirit or scope of the subject matter presented here.
The magnetic annealing apparatus disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 2004-263206 is a small-scale apparatus for use in research and development for a hard disk drive (HDD) or an MRAM and is not aimed at mass production. Considering an MRAM market size expected in the forthcoming years, what is requested is to develop a magnetic annealing apparatus which may continuously or semi-continuously process a plurality (e.g., one hundred sheets) of wafers. While it is necessary for the MRAM to strictly align the magnetic direction, the adoption space in a magnetic field generated by a magnet is very narrow. Therefore, a heating unit of the magnetic annealing apparatus is required to be very compact. Further, the temperature control is required to be configured as simply as possible. Meanwhile, in order to uniformly heat the plurality of wafers, it is necessary to raise the temperature of all the wafers at a uniform gradient regardless of the mounting positions of the wafers and to stabilize the temperature at an early stage, thereby continuing the uniform heating.
Accordingly, an object of the present disclosure is to provide a magnetic annealing apparatus which has a simple temperature control configuration and is able to extremely reduce a convergence time from a start of heating to a temperature stabilization, and a magnetic annealing method.