阅读说明：本技术 半导体设备的加热器及半导体设备 (Heater of semiconductor device and semiconductor device ) 是由 韩为鹏 黄其伟 邓斌 于 2021-07-06 设计创作，主要内容包括：本申请公开一种半导体设备的加热器和一种半导体设备,上述加热器包括：加热盘,用于设置在所述半导体设备的腔体中,所述加热盘具有第一空腔以及相对的载物平面和底面,所述底面具有开口,所述第一空腔通过所述开口与大气环境连通；第一冷却元件,固定于所述第一空腔内,所述第一冷却元件用于向所述第一空腔内通入冷却气体。上述加热器在半导体设备的工艺过程中,加热盘温度稳定。(The application discloses a heater of a semiconductor device and a semiconductor device, the heater includes: the heating plate is arranged in the cavity of the semiconductor equipment and provided with a first cavity, an opposite loading plane and a bottom surface, the bottom surface is provided with an opening, and the first cavity is communicated with the atmosphere through the opening; and the first cooling element is fixed in the first cavity and is used for introducing cooling gas into the first cavity. The temperature of the heating plate of the heater is stable in the process of the semiconductor equipment.)

1. A heater of a semiconductor device, comprising:

the heating plate is arranged in the cavity of the semiconductor equipment and provided with a first cavity, an opposite loading plane and a bottom surface, the bottom surface is provided with an opening, and the first cavity is communicated with the atmosphere through the opening;

and the first cooling element is fixed in the first cavity and is used for introducing cooling gas into the first cavity.

2. The heater of claim 1, wherein the first cooling element has an air passage therein, an air inlet of the air passage being adapted to communicate with an external air source, and an air outlet of the air passage communicating with the first cavity.

3. The heater of claim 1, wherein the first cooling element has a height less than a height of the first cavity, and a bottom surface of the first cooling element is secured to a bottom of the first cavity.

4. The heater of claim 1, wherein the first cavity is cylindrical, the first cooling element is cylindrical in shape and has an outer diameter smaller than a diameter of the first cavity, and the opening is located in a space enclosed by an inner annular wall of the first cooling element.

5. The heater of claim 2, further comprising a support member, the support member being hollow, one end of the support member communicating with the opening in the bottom surface of the heating plate, the other end of the support member extending through the bottom of the cavity to the atmosphere; an air inlet pipeline is arranged in the supporting component and is used for communicating an air inlet of the air circuit with the external air source.

6. The heater of claim 1, wherein the heating pan further has a second cavity disposed above and in communication with the first cavity; the heater also comprises a second cooling element which is positioned in the two cavities and is fixedly arranged with the heating plate, a liquid pipeline is arranged in the second cooling element, and the liquid pipeline is used for cooling the heating plate.

7. The heater of claim 5, wherein the first cooling element and the second cooling element have a predetermined gap therebetween.

8. The heater of claim 5, wherein the support assembly comprises a support shaft, a first flange, a bellows, and a second flange; the supporting shaft is hollow, one end of the supporting shaft is fixed at the bottom of the first flange in a lifting mode, and the other end of the supporting shaft penetrates through the second flange and is communicated to the atmospheric environment; the corrugated pipe is sleeved outside the supporting shaft, one end of the corrugated pipe is fixedly connected with the bottom of the heating plate through the first flange, and the other end of the corrugated pipe is connected to the second flange; the second flange is used for being fixed at the bottom of the cavity of the semiconductor equipment.

9. The heater of claim 5, wherein a mass flow controller is provided on the inlet conduit for controlling the flow of gas into the first cooling element.

10. The heater of claim 2, wherein the air outlet is a circular hole, the diameter of the air outlet is greater than or equal to 2mm and less than or equal to 5mm, the number of the air outlets is plural, and the air outlets are uniformly distributed on the surface of the first cooling element facing the loading plane.

11. A semiconductor device comprising a chamber and the heater of any one of claims 1-10.

Technical Field

The application relates to the technical field of semiconductors, in particular to a heater of a semiconductor device and the semiconductor device.

Background

Film deposition is a common process in semiconductor processing, for example, most power devices require thicker metal films to be deposited to meet process requirements, and the deposition time of the film is proportional to the thickness of the film and inversely proportional to the throughput. To improve the productivity, the deposition rate of the thin film needs to be greatly increased to reduce the deposition time.

The current method for increasing the film deposition rate is to increase the power of the power source applied during deposition. However, increasing the power and the deposition time can lead to a large amount of heat accumulation, which makes it difficult to stabilize the temperature of the heater supporting and controlling the wafer process temperature during the whole semiconductor process, resulting in the temperature in the process chamber exceeding the proper temperature, and the temperature of the heater will increase continuously as the number of wafers processed increases.

The continued increase in heater temperature can adversely affect the results of the semiconductor process. In the prior art, in order to control the stability of the temperature, when the temperature rises beyond a set range, the process can be stopped, the heating is stopped, and the process can be continued only after the temperature of the heater is reduced to the initial temperature. The cooling process wastes a large amount of time and seriously influences the productivity of equipment, and meanwhile, the cooling process is stopped and started continuously in the process, so that the complexity of process control is increased. At present, the demand for temperature regulation of the heater, particularly the auxiliary cooling function, is increasing.

Disclosure of Invention

In view of the above, the present application provides a heater of a semiconductor device and a semiconductor device to solve the problem of unstable temperature of the conventional semiconductor device.

The application provides a heater of semiconductor equipment, which comprises a heating plate, a first heat sink and a second heat sink, wherein the heating plate is arranged in a cavity of the semiconductor equipment, the heating plate is provided with a first cavity, an opposite carrying plane and a bottom surface, the bottom surface is provided with an opening, and the first cavity is communicated with the atmosphere environment through the opening; and the first cooling element is fixed in the first cavity and is used for introducing cooling gas into the first cavity.

Optionally, a gas circuit is arranged in the first cooling element, a gas inlet of the gas circuit is used for communicating with an external gas source, and a gas outlet of the gas circuit is communicated with the first cavity.

Optionally, the height of the first cooling element is smaller than the height of the first cavity, and the bottom surface of the first cooling element is fixed to the bottom of the first cavity.

Optionally, the first cavity is cylindrical, the first cooling element is cylindrical in shape, an outer diameter of the first cooling element is smaller than a diameter of the first cavity, and the opening is located in a space surrounded by an inner annular wall of the first cooling element.

Optionally, the heater further includes a support assembly, the support assembly is hollow, one end of the support assembly is communicated with the opening on the bottom surface of the heating plate, and the other end of the support assembly penetrates through the bottom of the cavity and is communicated to the atmosphere; an air inlet pipeline is arranged in the supporting component and is used for communicating an air inlet of the air circuit with the external air source.

Optionally, the heating plate further has a second cavity disposed above the first cavity and communicated with the first cavity, the heater further includes a second cooling element disposed in the second cavity and fixedly disposed with the heating plate, and the second cooling element has a liquid pipeline therein, and the liquid pipeline is used for cooling the heating plate.

Optionally, a preset gap is formed between the first cooling element and the second cooling element.

Optionally, the support assembly comprises a support shaft, a first flange, a corrugated pipe and a second flange, the support shaft is hollow, one end of the support shaft is fixed at the bottom of the first flange in a lifting manner, and the other end of the support shaft penetrates through the second flange and is communicated to the atmosphere; the corrugated pipe is sleeved outside the supporting shaft, one end of the corrugated pipe is fixedly connected with the bottom of the heating plate through the first flange, and the other end of the corrugated pipe is connected to the second flange; the second flange is used for being fixed at the bottom of the cavity of the semiconductor equipment.

Optionally, a mass flow controller is arranged on the air inlet pipeline, and the mass flow controller is used for controlling the flow of the gas into the first cooling element.

Optionally, the gas outlet is a circular hole, the diameter range of the gas outlet is greater than or equal to 2mm and less than or equal to 5mm, the number of the gas outlets is multiple, and the gas outlets are uniformly distributed on the surface of the first cooling element facing the object carrying plane.

The present application also provides a semiconductor device comprising a chamber and any of the heaters described above in the present invention.

The heater of the semiconductor device comprises a heating plate and a second cooling element, wherein the heating plate comprises a first cavity, and the first cavity is communicated with the atmospheric environment through an opening; first cooling element is used for letting in cooling gas to first cavity in, and cooling gas can cool off the heating plate after letting in first cavity to carry the heat and get rid of to the atmospheric environment in through the opening. The cooling efficiency can be improved due to the fact that the flow speed of the cooling gas is high; and the gas flow rate is easy to accurately control, and the temperature stability of the heating plate can be further improved by adjusting the gas flow rate.

Drawings

In order to more clearly illustrate the technical solutions in the embodiments of the present application, the drawings needed to be used in the description of the embodiments are briefly introduced below, and it is obvious that the drawings in the following description are only some embodiments of the present application, and it is obvious for those skilled in the art to obtain other drawings based on these drawings without creative efforts.

Fig. 1 is a schematic structural diagram of a semiconductor device according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 2 is a schematic structural view of a heater of a semiconductor device according to an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 3 is a schematic view of a first cooling element according to an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 4 is a schematic top view of a first cooling element of an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 5 is a schematic structural view of a heater of a semiconductor device according to an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 6a is a graph showing the temperature of a heating plate during a process of a semiconductor device according to an embodiment of the present application as a function of time;

fig. 6b is a graph showing the temperature of the heating plate during the process of the semiconductor device according to the embodiment of the present application as a function of time.

Detailed Description

As described in the background art, in the semiconductor process of a long time and high power, the temperature in the equipment chamber is difficult to be stably controlled in the process, the process needs to be stopped to reduce the temperature, after the process of one wafer is completed, the wafer needs to be kept still to wait for the heater to recover to the initial temperature, and then the process of the next wafer is performed, which wastes a lot of time and seriously affects the productivity.

The inventor researches and discovers that the main reason for the difficulty in stable temperature control is that the heaters adopted by the current semiconductor equipment basically adopt natural heat dissipation under vacuum and water-cooling plate heat dissipation. The heat dissipation efficiency of vacuum natural heat dissipation is very low, and when cooling water dissipates heat, the amount of cooling water introduced into the cooling plate is limited, and the area of the cooling plate is limited, so that sufficient heat dissipation efficiency cannot be provided.

The technical solutions in the embodiments of the present application are clearly and completely described below with reference to the accompanying drawings, and it is obvious that the described embodiments are only a part of the embodiments of the present application, and not all of the embodiments. All other embodiments, which can be derived by a person skilled in the art from the embodiments given herein without making any creative effort, shall fall within the protection scope of the present application. The following embodiments and their technical features may be combined with each other without conflict.

Fig. 1 is a schematic structural diagram of a semiconductor device according to an embodiment of the invention.

A semiconductor device 100, comprising: a chamber 110 and a heater.

The chamber 110 is a closed chamber surrounded by chamber walls, and the semiconductor process is performed in the chamber 110. The chamber 110 is maintained in a vacuum state during the process.

Referring to fig. 1 and 2, fig. 2 is a schematic structural diagram of the heater. In this embodiment, the heater includes a heating disk 120 and a first cooling element 124. The heating plate 120 is disposed in the cavity 110.

Heating disk 120 includes heating disk body 121 and first cavity 122 located in heating disk body 121, heating disk body 121 has opposite object plane 1211 and bottom surface 1212, and bottom surface 1212 has opening 1213 and is communicated with first cavity 122. The first cavity 122 communicates with the atmosphere through an opening 1213. The loading plane 1211 is used for placing a wafer, and the loading plane 1211 of the heating plate 120 is generally circular and has a size equal to or slightly larger than that of the wafer. The material of the heating plate 120 is generally a high-temperature-resistant and corrosion-resistant material such as stainless steel.

The heating element 123 is embedded in the heating plate body 121 between the first cavity 122 and the object plane 1211. The heating elements 123 comprise heating wires distributed in a plane parallel to the object plane 1211. The heating plate 120 is heated by heating the heating wire to generate heat. In this embodiment, the heating element 123 includes a single layer of uniformly distributed heating wires embedded in the heating plate main body 121, the heating wires are disposed parallel to the object plane 1211, and the distances between the positions of the heating wires and the object plane 1211 are the same, so that the heating element 123 can uniformly heat the positions of the object plane 1211, and the temperatures of the positions of the object plane 1211 are kept as same as possible. In other embodiments, the heating element 123 may further include two or more layers of heating wires laid to improve heating efficiency. The heating element 123 is generally wrapped in the heater plate body 121 to avoid exposure to oxidation and other problems.

Please refer to fig. 1 to fig. 3, wherein fig. 3 is a schematic structural diagram of the first cooling element. The first cooling element 124 is fixed in the first cavity 122 in the heating plate 120, a gas path 1241 is provided in the first cooling element 124, a gas inlet of the gas path 1241 is used for communicating with an external gas source, and a gas outlet of the gas path 1241 is communicated with the first cavity 122. Specifically, in this embodiment, an air inlet of the air path 1241 is connected to the air inlet pipe 1243, and the air outlet 1242 is distributed on a side surface of the first cooling element 124 facing the heating element 123. A gap 1244 communicating with the opening 1213 is provided between the air outlet 1242 and the heating pan main body 121.

Further, referring to fig. 4 in combination, fig. 4 is a schematic top view of the cooling element 124.

In this embodiment, the heating plate 120 and the first cavity 122 are both cylindrical; the first cooling element 124 is circular cylindrical, matching the size and shape of the first cavity 122, having circular annular and opposing first and second bottom surfaces 124a, 124b, and opposing outer and inner side walls 124c, 124d, with the opening 1213 being located in the space enclosed by the inner side wall 124d of the first cooling element 124. The first bottom surface 124a of the first cooling element 124 is disposed toward the heating element 123, the air outlets 1242 are distributed on the first bottom surface 124a, the air inlets are disposed on the inner sidewall 124d, and the space surrounded by the inner sidewall 124d is communicated with the opening 1213.

A gap 1244 is provided between the air outlet of the first cooling element 124 and the heating plate main body 121, so that the cooling air introduced into the first cavity 122 by the first cooling element 124 can be discharged to the atmosphere through the opening 1213.

In this embodiment, the second bottom surface 124b of the first cooling element 124 is fixed inside the bottom surface 1212 of the heating pan main body 121, and the height of the first cooling element 124 is smaller than the height of the first cavity 122, so that a gap 1244 is provided between the first ground 126b and the heating pan main body 121.

Further, the outer diameter of the first cooling element 124 is smaller than the diameter of the first cavity 122, so that there is also a gap 1244 between the outer side wall 124c and the first bottom surface 124a of the first cooling element 124 and the heating plate body 121. Gap 1244 communicates to the outside of heating pan 120 through opening 1213.

The air outlets 1242 of the air passages 1241 inside the first cooling element 124 are distributed on the first bottom surface 124a and face the heating element 123. The cooling gas enters the gas passage 1241 through the gas inlet pipe 1243, is blown out from the gas outlet 1242, enters the gap 1244 between the first cooling element 124 and the heating disk main body 121, and is discharged to the outside of the heating disk 120 through the opening 1213. The cooling gas has a low temperature, and is introduced into the first cooling element 124 and the cavity 122, so that heat of the heating plate main body 121 can be absorbed through heat transfer, and the cooling gas is carried out of the heating plate 120 through gas circulation; in addition, in the process of rapid gas circulation, the originally heated gas in the first cavity 122 can be carried to the outside of the heating plate 120. Compared with liquid circulation cooling, the gas flow rate is fast, and the cooling efficiency is higher.

In order to improve the uniformity of heat dissipation to the heating plate 120, a plurality of air outlets 1242 are uniformly distributed on the first bottom surface 124a of the first cooling element 124. In some embodiments, the air outlet 1242 is circular and has a diameter in the range of 2mm or more and 5mm or less. In other embodiments, the air outlet 1242 may also take other shapes and sizes as required, and is not limited herein.

Further, in this embodiment, the cooling gas is introduced into the first cooling element 124 through the two gas inlet pipes 1243, so that the flow rate of the cooling gas can be increased, and the uniformity of the gas flow rate of each gas outlet 1242 on the first bottom surface 124a can be improved. In other embodiments, the number of the air inlet pipes 1243 may be set as appropriate according to needs. A cooling gas, which may be N₂Or inert gas such as Ar, can be directly discharged to the atmosphere without adding an additional gas processing device. The air inlet 1243 may also be provided with a mass flow controller (not shown) for controlling the flow of gas into the first cooling element 124.

The gap 1244 between the first bottom surface 124a and the heater plate body 121 has a suitable height so that the cooling gas maintains a sufficient flow rate in the gap 1244 to carry away heat. If the height of the gap 1244 is too large, the flow speed of the cooling gas is reduced too much after the cooling gas enters the gap 1244, and the cooling efficiency is reduced; if the height of the gap 1244 is too small, the amount of introduced refrigerant gas is too small, and the cooling effect is poor. In some embodiments, the height of the gap 1244 is 1mm to 10 mm.

In this embodiment, in addition to the gap 1244 above the first bottom surface 124a, a gap is also formed between the sidewall of the first cooling element 124 and the heating plate main body 121, so as to improve the contact surface between the cooling gas and the heating plate main body 121, thereby improving the cooling efficiency.

In this embodiment, the heater further includes a support assembly 130, and the support assembly 130 is used for supporting the heating plate 120 in a liftable and lowerable manner, and the height of the heating plate 120 is adjusted by the lifting. Specifically, the supporting component 130 is hollow, one end of the supporting component 130 is communicated with the opening 1213 on the bottom surface of the heating plate 120, and the other end of the supporting component 130 penetrates through the bottom of the cavity 110 and is communicated to the atmosphere; an air inlet pipeline 1243 is disposed in the support assembly 130, and the air inlet pipeline 1243 is used for communicating an air inlet of the air path with an external air source. The heating plate 120 is liftably fixed to the bottom of the chamber 110 by a support assembly 130.

Specifically, the support assembly 130 includes a support shaft 134, a bellows 131, a first flange 132, and a second flange 133.

The supporting shaft 134 is hollow, and one end of the supporting shaft is fixed to the bottom of the first flange 132 in a liftable manner, and is communicated with the opening 1213 through the first flange 132, and the other end of the supporting shaft passes through the second flange 133 and is communicated to the atmosphere, so that the outer surface of the heating plate 120 is located in the vacuum environment of the cavity 110, and the inner first cavity 122 is communicated to the external atmosphere. An intake pipe 1243 passes through the inside of the support shaft 134, being connected to an intake port of the first cooling element 124. The hollow interior of the support shaft 134 communicates with the hollow first cavity 122 inside the heating plate 120, and the cooling air enters the first cooling element 124 through the air inlet pipe 1243, enters the first cavity 122 through the air outlet 1242 of the first bottom surface 124a of the first cooling element 124, and is discharged to the atmosphere along the hollow area inside the support shaft 134 from the opening 1213, thereby taking out the heat inside the heating plate 120.

One end of the corrugated pipe 131 is fixedly connected with the bottom of the heating plate 120 in a sealing way through a first flange 132, and the other end of the corrugated pipe is fixedly connected with the bottom of the cavity 110 in a sealing way through a second flange 133. The bellows 131 has a corrugated sidewall, and has a certain elasticity for adopting a tubular structure formed by connecting foldable corrugated sheets in a folding and stretching direction, so as to provide a stretching height required by the lifting of the heating plate 120.

In this embodiment, both ends of the heating wire of the heating element 123 also extend to the outside of the chamber 110 through the hollow pipe inside the supporting shaft 134, so as to connect the positive and negative electrodes of the power supply.

Fig. 5 is a schematic structural diagram of a heater of a semiconductor device according to another embodiment of the invention.

In addition to the embodiment shown in fig. 2, in this embodiment, the heating plate 120 further has a second cavity 1221 disposed above the first cavity 122 and communicating with the first cavity 122; the heater further includes a second cooling element 510 positioned in the second cavity 1221 and fixedly disposed with the heating disk 120; the second cooling element 510 has a liquid line 501 therein, which is used to cool the heating disk 120. The second cavity 1221 is communicated with the first cavity 122.

One end of the liquid pipeline 501 is connected to the liquid inlet pipe 502a, and the other end is connected to the liquid outlet pipe 502 b. The second cooling element 510 cools the heating plate 120 through cooling liquid, and the cooling liquid flows from the liquid inlet pipe 502a through the liquid pipeline 501 in the second cooling element 510, and then flows out from the liquid outlet pipe 502b through the other end, so as to bring out heat. The cooling liquid is usually water, and after taking heat out, the cooling liquid is cooled externally and then is recycled into the second cooling element 510, so as to continue cooling. In this embodiment, the second cooling element 510 is located between the heating element 123 and the first cooling element 124, having opposing first and second surfaces; the first surface faces the heating element 123 and is disposed adjacent to the heating plate body 121, and the temperature of the heating plate body 121 is reduced by heat transfer. The second surface of the second cooling element 510 faces the first cooling element 124, and has a predetermined gap 503 with the first bottom surface 124a of the first cooling element 124. The cooling gas enters the preset gap 503 from the gas outlet of the first cooling element 124, enters the support shaft 134 from the opening 1213, and is discharged to the outside.

In this embodiment, the second cavity 1221 is cylindrical, the second cooling element 510 is circular cylindrical, and the first surface and the second surface are two bottom surfaces of the second cooling element 510, respectively; the liquid inlet and the liquid outlet of the liquid pipeline are respectively arranged on the inner side wall of the second cooling element 510. The diameter of the second cavity 1221 may be smaller, larger, or equal to the diameter of the first cavity 122.

In this embodiment, the second cooling element 124 and the first cooling element 520 respectively use the cooling liquid and the cooling gas as cooling media to cool together, thereby improving the cooling efficiency. Since the second cooling element 510 is cooled by the cooling liquid, the cooling liquid has a small amount, and a relatively stable cooling capacity can be provided. Further, let in cooling gas through first cooling element 124, improve the cooling effect, and because the cooling gas velocity of flow is higher, easily control, the heat is taken away rapidly through cooling gas, can further improve cooling efficiency and improve temperature control's accuracy.

Referring to fig. 6a, it is a time-dependent curve of the temperature of the heating plate 120 cooled by only the second cooling element 510 according to an embodiment of the present invention. And fig. 6b, which is a plot of the temperature of heating disk 120 being simultaneously cooled using first cooling element 214 and second cooling element 510 over time.

Fig. 6a and 6b show the measured temperature at the object side 1211 of the heating plate 120 when depositing an Al thin film of 3um under a condition of 55kW, and the heating target temperature of the heating plate 120 by the heating element 123 is set to 175 ℃.

In fig. 6a, the temperature of the object side 1211 of the heating plate 120 continues to rise as the process time accumulates. The temperature of the heating plate 120 cannot be controlled within a stable range by means of heat transfer of the coolant only through the second cooling element 510.

Referring to fig. 6b, under the condition that parameters such as the flow rate of the cooling liquid of the second cooling element 510 are kept unchanged, the cooling gas is introduced into the first cooling element 124, and the heat is removed to the outside by purging the cooling gas. In this embodiment, the flow rate of the gas is set to 60sccm, and the gas is N₂The temperature of the heating plate 120 can be stabilized within + -5 ℃ by continuous manufacturing process. The temperature of the heating plate 120 is stable, the process can be continuously performed, the heating plate 120 does not need to be kept still for waiting for the temperature recovery of the heating plate 120, and the productivity can be almost doubled.

In the above embodiments, spatial relationship terms, such as "under", "below", "beneath", "below", "over", "above", and the like, may be used herein for convenience of description to describe one element or feature's relationship to another element or feature as illustrated in the figures. It will be understood that the spatially relative terms are intended to encompass different orientations of the device in use or operation in addition to the orientation depicted in the figures. For example, if the structure in the figures is turned over, then elements or features described as "under" or "beneath" other elements or features would then be oriented "over" the other elements or features. Thus, the exemplary terms "under" and "under" can encompass both an orientation of above and below. Structures may be otherwise oriented (rotated 90 degrees or at other orientations) and the spatial descriptors used herein interpreted accordingly.

That is, the above description is only an embodiment of the present application, and not intended to limit the scope of the present application, and all equivalent structures or equivalent flow transformations made by using the contents of the specification and the drawings, such as mutual combination of technical features between various embodiments, or direct or indirect application to other related technical fields, are included in the scope of the present application.