阅读说明：本技术 Rtp机台滚珠上顶环润滑方法 (Lubricating method for upper top ring of roll ball of RTP machine ) 是由 潘春蒙 于 2020-06-30 设计创作，主要内容包括：本发明公开了一种RTP机台滚珠上顶环润滑方法,一种RTP机台滚珠上顶环润滑方法,所述机台的晶圆承台由滚珠上顶环、滚珠轴承以及隔块、滚珠下底环所组成的承托结构承托；所述滚珠轴承以及隔块位于滚珠上顶环与滚珠下底环之间,在晶圆承台承托结构的滚珠上顶环的沟槽中均匀涂抹润滑剂。本发明在滚珠上顶环与滚珠轴承的滚珠接触的沟槽内涂抹润滑剂,更大的接触面积能保证润滑剂充分润滑滚珠上顶环与滚珠之间的接触,改善滚珠上顶环与滚珠之间的润滑状态,使滚珠上顶环承托着晶圆承台更平顺均匀地转动,降低晶圆承台转动不均而导致晶圆背面被划伤的风险。(The invention discloses a lubricating method for an upper top ring of a roll ball of an RTP (real-time transport protocol) machine, which is a lubricating method for an upper top ring of a roll ball of an RTP machine.A wafer bearing platform of the machine is supported by a bearing structure consisting of the upper top ring of the roll ball, a roll ball bearing, a spacer block and a lower bottom ring of the roll ball; the ball bearing and the spacer block are positioned between the ball upper top ring and the ball lower bottom ring, and a lubricant is uniformly smeared in a groove of the ball upper top ring of the wafer bearing platform bearing structure. According to the wafer bearing platform, the lubricant is coated in the groove where the ball upper top ring is contacted with the balls of the ball bearing, so that the larger contact area can ensure that the lubricant can fully lubricate the contact between the ball upper top ring and the balls, the lubrication state between the ball upper top ring and the balls is improved, the ball upper top ring supports the wafer bearing platform to rotate smoothly and uniformly, and the risk that the back of the wafer is scratched due to the uneven rotation of the wafer bearing platform is reduced.)

1. A method for lubricating an upper ball top ring of an RTP machine platform is characterized in that a wafer bearing platform of the machine platform is supported by a bearing structure consisting of an upper ball top ring, a ball bearing, a spacer block and a lower ball bottom ring; ball bearing and spacer block are located on the ball between top ring and the ball bottom ring down, its characterized in that: and uniformly smearing a lubricant in a groove of a ball upper top ring of the wafer bearing platform bearing structure.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising the steps of: the ball upper top ring, the ball bearing, the spacer block and the ball lower bottom ring are driven by a motor to rotate and then drive the upper wafer bearing platform to rotate; the wafer is placed on the wafer bearing platform and synchronously rotates, and the rotating wafer can be uniformly heated by combining with the heating lamp tube above the wafer.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising the steps of: the ball upper top ring is contacted with the balls of the ball bearing, and the ball lower bottom ring is contacted with the balls of the ball bearing; the contact area between the ball lower bottom ring and the balls is smaller than that between the ball upper top ring and the balls.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising the steps of: the ball upper top ring is provided with a gap larger than that of the ball lower bottom ring and used for accommodating balls of the ball bearing, and a groove area is formed; applying a lubricant in the groove region.

5. The method of claim 4, further comprising the steps of: the groove of the ball upper top ring is contacted with the ball of the ball bearing, the ball bearing the ball upper top ring, and the ball upper top ring can smoothly rotate through the rolling of the ball.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising the steps of: the balls are isolated by the spacer blocks, so that the balls always keep a certain interval in the rolling process and cannot be mutually rubbed and interfered.

7. The method of claim 3, further comprising the steps of: the bigger contact area of the ball upper top ring and the ball can ensure that the ball upper top ring and the ball bearing can be lubricated more fully by the lubricant, the friction coefficient is lower, the ball upper top ring supports the wafer bearing platform to rotate more smoothly, and the risk of scratching the back of the wafer is reduced.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising the steps of: the ball upper top ring upper device is composed of a support ring, and the ball upper top ring supports the wafer bearing platform through the support ring to drive the wafer bearing platform to rotate.

Technical Field

The invention relates to the field of semiconductor integrated circuit manufacturing, in particular to a ball upper top ring lubricating method of an RTP machine table adopted in an RTP process.

Background

During the wafer manufacturing process, a high temperature process such as deposition of a thin film, or high temperature thermal annealing after ion implantation, etc. is often used. The impurity after ion implantation has a redistribution problem at high temperature. For small size devices, this redistribution is often highly undesirable, and so in recent years we have focused on low temperature processes that can minimize diffusion. However, there are processes, such as post-implant annealing, that are not as effective at low temperatures as they are at high temperatures, and if high temperatures are not reached, some types of implant damage cannot be eliminated by annealing. In addition, the annealing temperature required to fully activate some impurities is at least 1000 ℃. Another way to reduce diffusion is to shorten the time at the same temperature. Standard furnace tube annealing processes are difficult to accommodate for short duration annealing because the wafers in the furnace tube are heated from the edge toward the center, and the wafers must be slowly heated and cooled to avoid warping and deformation of the wafers due to excessive temperature gradients across the wafers. Therefore, even if the annealing time can be shortened, the long-term temperature rise and fall causes significant diffusion. At the same time, attention has been directed to processes that process only one wafer at a time, rather than batches of wafers. These monolithic processes can provide the best uniformity and repeatability, particularly for the processing of large size wafers. Rapid Thermal Processing (RTP) process refers to a type of monolithic thermal processing that aims to minimize the thermal budget of the process by lowering the temperature and reducing the time or only the time.

The RTP process is performed in an RTP platform, a Wafer is placed on a Wafer bearing platform of the RTP platform, as shown in fig. 1, the Wafer is placed on a Wafer bearing platform (Wafer edge ring) and contacts with the Wafer bearing platform, the edge ring rotates in an operation chamber of the RTP platform, so as to drive the Wafer to rotate, and a plurality of heating lamps above the Wafer uniformly heat the Wafer. An exploded view of the structure below the wafer stage is shown in fig. 2, and includes a ball top ring (Upper Race), a ball bearing and spacer (Spacers), and a ball bottom ring (Lower Race), wherein the ball bearing and the spacer are located between the ball bottom ring and the ball top ring. The above structures are assembled to form a whole. A motor drives the structure to rotate, and then drives the wafer bearing platform to rotate, so that the wafer can be uniformly heated. In order to ensure that the wafer bearing platform can smoothly rotate, the wafer bearing platform needs to be ensured to have better lubrication and can smoothly rotate, otherwise, the wafer is unevenly heated under the condition of blocked operation, or the back of the wafer is scratched because the wafer cannot rotate at a constant speed.

Conventionally, lubricant is applied to the position of the Lower ball bottom ring (Lower Race) as shown in fig. 2 to reduce friction, thereby uniformly rotating the edge ring. In actual operation, the gap for smearing the lubricant on the lower bottom ring of the ball is narrow, the lubricant is not easy to smear uniformly, and the contact surface of the lower bottom ring of the ball and the supported ball bearing is small, so that the lubricating effect is not ideal, the edge ring rotates unevenly, and finally the back of a product is scratched. In practice, this situation of scratching the backside of the wafer often occurs.

Disclosure of Invention

The technical problem to be solved by the invention is to provide a lubricating method for an upper top ring of a ball of an RTP machine table, so that a wafer bearing table can rotate more smoothly, and the risk of scratching a wafer is reduced.

In order to solve the above problems, the invention provides a method for lubricating an upper top ring of a roll ball of an RTP machine, wherein a wafer bearing platform of the machine is supported by a bearing structure consisting of the upper top ring of the roll ball, a roll ball bearing, a spacer block and a lower bottom ring of the roll ball; ball bearing and spacer block are located on the ball between top ring and the ball bottom ring down, its characterized in that: and uniformly smearing the lubricant in the grooves of the top rings on the balls of the wafer bearing platform.

The further improvement is that the ball upper top ring, the ball bearing, the spacer block and the ball lower bottom ring are driven by a motor to rotate and then drive the upper wafer bearing platform to rotate; the wafer is placed on the wafer bearing platform and synchronously rotates, and the rotating wafer can be uniformly heated by combining with the heating lamp tube above the wafer.

The further improvement is that the ball upper top ring is contacted with the balls of the ball bearing, and the ball lower bottom ring is contacted with the balls of the ball bearing; the contact area between the ball lower bottom ring and the balls is smaller than that between the ball upper top ring and the balls.

In a further improvement, the ball upper top ring is provided with a larger gap than the ball lower bottom ring for accommodating the balls of the ball bearing, and a groove area is formed; applying a lubricant in the groove region.

In a further improvement, the groove of the ball top ring is in contact with the balls of the ball bearing, the balls support the ball top ring, and the ball top ring can smoothly rotate through the rolling of the balls.

The further improvement is that the balls are separated by a spacer, so that the balls always keep a certain interval in the rolling process without mutual friction interference.

The further improvement is that the bigger contact area of the ball upper top ring and the ball can ensure that the ball upper top ring and the ball bearing can be more fully lubricated by the lubricant, the friction coefficient is lower, the ball upper top ring supports the wafer bearing platform to rotate more smoothly, and the risk of scratching the back of the wafer is reduced.

According to the lubricating method for the upper top ring of the ball of the RTP machine, the lubricant is coated in the groove where the upper top ring of the ball is contacted with the ball of the ball bearing, so that the contact area is larger, the lubricant can be ensured to fully lubricate the contact between the upper top ring of the ball and the ball, the lubricating state between the upper top ring of the ball and the ball is improved, the upper top ring of the ball supports the wafer bearing platform to rotate smoothly and uniformly, and the risk that the back of the wafer is scratched due to the uneven rotation of the wafer bearing platform is reduced.

Drawings

FIG. 1 is a schematic structural diagram of a wafer stage.

FIG. 2 is an exploded view of the ball top ring, ball bearing and ball bottom ring structure under the wafer stage.

Fig. 3 is a schematic view of the ball top ring after being flipped over to show the contact surface of the ball top ring and the ball bearing.

Detailed Description

The invention relates to a lubricating method for an upper top ring of a ball of an RTP machine, wherein a wafer bearing platform of the machine is supported by a bearing structure consisting of the upper top ring of the ball, a ball bearing, a spacer block and a lower bottom ring of the ball; as shown in fig. 1 and 2, fig. 1 is a wafer stage, which is a structural member directly contacting with a wafer, the wafer is placed on the wafer stage, and the wafer stage drives the wafer to rotate. The support structure shown in fig. 2 is located below the wafer stage shown in fig. 1, supporting the wafer stage. Ball bearing and spacer block are located on the ball between top ring and the ball bottom ring down, and ball bearing comprises a plurality of balls and spacer block, and the ball can be nimble freely roll in order to reduce coefficient of friction, and a plurality of spacer blocks are located and guarantee between the ball can remain specific interval when freely rolling again all the time between the ball, place and produce the friction and interfere between the ball.

The upper ball top ring, the ball bearing, the spacer block and the lower ball bottom ring are driven by a motor to rotate, a Support ring (Support cylinder) is arranged on the upper ball top ring, and the Support ring is used for supporting the wafer bearing platform and driving the upper wafer bearing platform to rotate; the wafer is placed on the wafer bearing platform and synchronously rotates, and the rotating wafer can be uniformly heated by combining with the heating lamp tube above the wafer.

The ball upper top ring is contacted with the balls of the ball bearing, and the ball lower bottom ring is contacted with the balls of the ball bearing; the groove of the ball upper top ring is contacted with the ball of the ball bearing, the ball bearing the ball upper top ring, and the ball upper top ring can smoothly rotate through the rolling of the ball.

The contact area between the ball lower bottom ring and the balls is smaller than that between the ball upper top ring and the balls. The ball upper top ring is in a hollow annular cover-shaped appearance, and the ball upper top ring is provided with a gap larger than that of the ball lower bottom ring and used for accommodating a ball of a ball bearing, so that a groove area for accommodating the ball is formed. As shown in fig. 3, the upper top ring of the ball bearing is taken out separately and turned over relative to the structure shown in fig. 2, that is, the upper top ring of the ball bearing shown in fig. 2 is turned up and down to make the bottom surface of the upper top ring face upward, the position of the black dashed line frame in the figure is the contact area between the ball of the ball bearing and the upper top ring of the ball bearing, the contact area between the ball and the upper top ring of the ball bearing is groove-shaped, the ball is embedded in the groove to roll freely, the contact area between the groove and the ball is far larger than that between the lower bottom ring of the ball and the ball, therefore, the present invention evenly coats the lubricant in the groove of the upper top ring of the ball bearing, that is, the position indicated by the arrow in fig. 2.

The larger contact area between the ball upper top ring and the ball can ensure that the ball upper top ring and the ball bearing can be more fully lubricated by the lubricant, and the friction coefficient is lower.

The lubricating method for the upper top ring of the ball of the RTP machine changes the traditional method of smearing the lubricant on the lower bottom ring of the ball, but the lubricant is smeared in the groove where the upper top ring of the ball is contacted with the ball of the ball bearing, so that the larger contact area can ensure that the lubricant can fully lubricate the contact between the upper top ring of the ball and the ball, improve the lubricating state between the upper top ring of the ball and the ball, enable the upper top ring of the ball to support the wafer bearing platform to rotate more smoothly and uniformly, and reduce the risk that the back of the wafer is scratched due to the uneven rotation of the wafer bearing platform.

The above are merely preferred embodiments of the present invention, and are not intended to limit the present invention. Various modifications and alterations to this invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art. Any modification, equivalent replacement, or improvement made within the spirit and principle of the present invention should be included in the protection scope of the present invention.