阅读说明：本技术 薄膜沉积设备及半导体工艺方法 (Film deposition equipment and semiconductor process method ) 是由 邓伟东 于 2019-11-01 设计创作，主要内容包括：本发明提供一种薄膜沉积设备及半导体工艺方法。薄膜沉积设备包括沉积炉管、晶圆装载区及晶圆传送装置；沉积炉管用于对晶圆进行薄膜沉积工艺；晶圆装置区设置有称量装置,称量装置用于承载放置有晶圆的晶圆盒并获得晶圆的重量；晶圆传送装置位于沉积炉管及晶圆装载区之间,用于在沉积炉管和晶圆装载区的晶圆盒之间传送晶圆。采用本发明的薄膜沉积设备可以及时掌握设备故障时晶圆所处的位置,从而为工作人员的排障作业提供参考,有助于降低晶圆被污染的风险。同时,本申请通过比较晶圆在薄膜沉积工艺前后的重量差以判断晶圆沉积的薄膜是否符合要求,相较于传统的检测方法极大简化,有助于减少检测时间、提高检测效率。(The invention provides a thin film deposition device and a semiconductor process method. The thin film deposition equipment comprises a deposition furnace tube, a wafer loading area and a wafer transmission device; the deposition furnace tube is used for carrying out a film deposition process on the wafer; the wafer device area is provided with a weighing device, and the weighing device is used for bearing a wafer box with wafers and obtaining the weight of the wafers; the wafer transfer device is positioned between the deposition furnace tube and the wafer loading area and is used for transferring wafers between the deposition furnace tube and the wafer box of the wafer loading area. The thin film deposition equipment can timely master the position of the wafer when the equipment fails, thereby providing reference for troubleshooting operation of workers and being beneficial to reducing the risk of wafer pollution. Meanwhile, the weight difference of the wafer before and after the film deposition process is compared to judge whether the film deposited on the wafer meets the requirement or not, and compared with the traditional detection method, the method is greatly simplified, the detection time is reduced, and the detection efficiency is improved.)

1. A thin film deposition apparatus, characterized by comprising:

the deposition furnace tube is used for carrying out a thin film deposition process on the wafer;

the wafer loading area is provided with a weighing device, and the weighing device is used for bearing a wafer box with wafers and obtaining the weight of the wafers;

and the wafer transmission device is positioned between the deposition furnace tube and the wafer loading area and is used for transmitting wafers between the deposition furnace tube and the wafer box of the wafer loading area.

2. The thin film deposition apparatus according to claim 1, wherein: and the weighing device weighs the wafer box after each wafer is conveyed from the deposition furnace tube to the wafer box so as to obtain the weight of the wafer after the thin film deposition process.

3. The thin film deposition apparatus according to claim 1, wherein: and the weighing device is used for weighing the wafer box after every 5n wafers (n is an integer greater than or equal to 1) are conveyed from the deposition furnace tube to the wafer box so as to obtain the weight of the 5n wafers after the thin film deposition process.

4. The thin film deposition apparatus according to claim 1, wherein: the weighing devices are more than 2.

5. The thin film deposition apparatus according to claim 1, wherein: the weighing precision of the weighing device is milligram.

6. The thin film deposition apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 5, wherein: the thin film deposition equipment further comprises a control device connected with the weighing device.

7. A semiconductor processing method, characterized in that the semiconductor processing method comprises:

after the wafer is conveyed from the wafer box to the deposition furnace tube, the wafer is subjected to a thin film deposition process;

conveying the wafer which is subjected to the film deposition process in the deposition furnace tube back to the wafer box and weighing the wafer to obtain the weight of the wafer subjected to the film deposition process;

and obtaining the weight difference of the wafer after the film deposition process based on the weight of the wafer after the film deposition process and the initial weight of the wafer, and judging whether the film deposited on the wafer meets the requirement according to the weight difference.

8. The semiconductor processing method of claim 7, wherein: the thin film deposition process comprises one of a polycrystalline silicon deposition process and a silicon oxide deposition process, and the deposition film thickness of the wafer in the thin film deposition process is more than or equal to 200 mu m.

9. The semiconductor processing method according to claim 7 or 8, wherein: the thin film deposition process is a batch-type thin film deposition process, the semiconductor process method comprises the steps of obtaining the weight difference of a single wafer after the thin film deposition process based on the weight of the wafer after the thin film deposition process and the initial weight of the wafer, and judging whether the thin film deposited on the wafer meets the requirement or not according to the weight difference.

10. The semiconductor processing method according to claim 7 or 8, wherein: the film deposition process is a batch type film deposition process, the semiconductor process method comprises the steps of obtaining the weight difference of 5n wafers after the film deposition process based on the weight of the 5n wafers (n is an integer greater than or equal to 1) after the film deposition process and the initial weight of the 5n wafers, and judging whether the film deposited on the wafers meets the requirement or not according to the weight difference.

Technical Field

The invention relates to the field of semiconductor chip manufacturing, in particular to thin film deposition equipment and a semiconductor process method.

Background

In the batch type thin film deposition process, the equipment needs to transfer the wafer cassette from the wafer cassette stacking point to the wafer loading area during the process of loading/unloading the wafers, and then the wafers are grabbed from the wafer cassette onto the deposition chamber and arranged in sequence. This process requires a conveyor to complete, which if there is a fault in the process, stops at the current location and generates an alarm to alert the personnel to the process. The process of the personnel handling such alarms typically includes confirming that the transfer device has a wafer on it and confirming that the transfer device is in a safe location, with instructions that differ depending on the location. However, there is a possibility that there is no way to determine whether the conveyor is in a safe position, such as where the conveyor is not visible. At this time, the rear door of the apparatus needs to be opened, and the worker can enter the apparatus from the upper half to see the position of the conveyor, and then perform correct subsequent processing. Once the back door of the apparatus is opened, all wafers in the deposition chamber are exposed to air, risking contamination. In order to ensure the yield, the process engineer is usually required to determine whether to pull out the wafers and check the wafers according to experience and conditions at that time to determine whether the process can be continued, which may increase the production time. Meanwhile, the existing wafer film thickness detection method is too complex, and the film thickness is easily damaged in the film thickness detection process.

Disclosure of Invention

In view of the above-mentioned shortcomings of the prior art, an object of the present invention is to provide a thin film deposition apparatus and a semiconductor process method, which are used to solve the problems in the prior art that when a transfer device fails and whether a wafer is in a safe position cannot be confirmed, a back door of the apparatus needs to be opened for manual observation, thereby resulting in a risk of contamination of the wafer, an increase in production time during subsequent inspection of the wafer, and an excessively complicated wafer film thickness inspection method, which easily damages the film thickness during inspection.

In order to achieve the above and other related objects, the present invention provides a thin film deposition apparatus, which includes a deposition furnace, a wafer loading area, and a wafer transfer device; the deposition furnace tube is used for carrying out a film deposition process on wafers, the wafer device area is provided with a weighing device, and the weighing device is used for bearing a wafer box in which the wafers are placed and obtaining the weight of the wafers; the wafer transmission device is positioned between the deposition furnace tube and the wafer loading area and is used for transmitting wafers between the deposition furnace tube and the wafer box of the wafer loading area.

Optionally, the weighing device weighs each wafer after each wafer is transferred from the deposition furnace to the wafer box to obtain the weight of the wafer after the thin film deposition process.

Optionally, the weighing device weighs the wafer cassette after every 5n wafers (n is an integer greater than or equal to 1) are transferred from the deposition furnace tube to the wafer cassette to obtain the weight of the 5n wafers after the thin film deposition process.

Optionally, the number of the weighing devices is more than 2.

Optionally, the weighing precision of the weighing device is milligrams.

Optionally, the thin film deposition apparatus further comprises a control device connected to the weighing device.

The invention also provides a semiconductor process method, which comprises the following steps:

after the wafer is conveyed from the wafer box to the deposition furnace tube, the wafer is subjected to a thin film deposition process;

conveying the wafer which is subjected to the film deposition process in the deposition furnace tube back to the wafer box and weighing the wafer to obtain the weight of the wafer subjected to the film deposition process;

and obtaining the weight difference of the wafer after the film deposition process based on the weight of the wafer after the film deposition process and the initial weight of the wafer, and judging whether the film deposited on the wafer meets the requirement according to the weight difference.

Optionally, the thin film deposition process includes one of a polysilicon deposition process and a silicon oxide deposition process, and a deposition film thickness of the wafer in the thin film deposition process is greater than or equal to 200 μm.

Optionally, the thin film deposition process is a batch-type thin film deposition process, and the semiconductor process method includes obtaining a weight difference of a single wafer after the thin film deposition process based on the weight of the wafer after the thin film deposition process and the initial weight of the wafer, and determining whether a thin film deposited on the wafer meets requirements according to the weight difference.

In another alternative, the thin film deposition process is a batch-type thin film deposition process, and the semiconductor process method includes obtaining a weight difference of 5n (n is an integer greater than or equal to 1) wafers after the thin film deposition process based on the weight of the wafers after the thin film deposition process and the initial weight of the 5n wafers, and determining whether the thin film deposited on the wafers meets requirements according to the weight difference.

As described above, the thin film deposition apparatus and the semiconductor process method of the present invention have the following advantageous effects: according to the invention, the position of the wafer in the equipment failure can be timely grasped by weighing the wafer, so that reference is provided for fault removal operation of workers, and the risk of wafer pollution is favorably reduced. Meanwhile, the weight difference of the wafer before and after the film deposition process is compared to judge whether the film deposited on the wafer meets the requirement or not, and compared with the traditional detection method, the method is greatly simplified, the detection time is reduced, and the detection efficiency is improved.

Drawings

FIG. 1 is a schematic structural view of a thin film deposition apparatus according to the present invention.

Fig. 2 to 5 are schematic views showing a wafer transfer apparatus in a failure state.

FIG. 6 is a flow chart of a semiconductor processing method of the present invention.

Description of the element reference numerals

11 deposition furnace tube

111 boat

112 lifter

12 wafer loading area

121 weighing device

122 wafer box

123 wafer

13 wafer transfer device

131 mechanical arm

14 casing

15 control device

S01-S03

Detailed Description

The embodiments of the present invention are described below with reference to specific embodiments, and other advantages and effects of the present invention will be easily understood by those skilled in the art from the disclosure of the present specification. The invention is capable of other and different embodiments and of being practiced or of being carried out in various ways, and its several details are capable of modification in various respects, all without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention.

Please refer to fig. 1 to 6. It should be noted that the drawings provided in the present embodiment are only for illustrating the basic idea of the present invention, and the components related to the present invention are only shown in the drawings rather than drawn according to the number, shape and size of the components in actual implementation, and the type, quantity and proportion of the components in actual implementation may be changed freely, and the layout of the components may be more complicated.

As shown in fig. 1, the present invention provides a thin film deposition apparatus, which includes a deposition furnace 11, a wafer loading area 12 and a wafer transfer device 13; the deposition furnace 11 is used for performing a thin film deposition process on the wafer 123; the wafer 123 device area is provided with a weighing device 121, and the weighing device 121 is used for bearing the wafer box 122 with the wafer 123 and obtaining the weight of the wafer 123; the wafer transfer device 13 is disposed between the deposition furnace 11 and the wafer loading area 12, and is used for transferring the wafer 123 between the deposition furnace 11 and the wafer cassette 122 of the wafer loading area 12.

The film deposition equipment can weigh the wafer, so that the position of the wafer is judged when the equipment is in fault, reference is provided for troubleshooting operation of workers, and the risk of wafer pollution is reduced. Meanwhile, the film deposition equipment can judge whether the film deposited on the wafer meets the requirement or not by comparing the weight difference of the wafer before and after the film deposition process, thereby being beneficial to simplifying the film detection process and avoiding the damage to the film in the detection process.

The thin film deposition apparatus has a housing 14, an openable cavity door (not shown) is disposed on the housing 14, and the deposition furnace 11, the wafer loading area 12 and the wafer transfer device 13 are all located in the housing 14, so that the cleanliness in the thin film deposition process can be further improved, which is beneficial to improving the production yield. And when the equipment fails, the cavity door can be opened to access the inside of the equipment for maintenance.

As an example, the thin film deposition apparatus further includes a wafer boat 111, the wafer 123 is transferred from the wafer cassette 122 into the wafer boat 111 through the wafer transfer device 13, the wafer boat 111 with the wafer 123 enters the deposition furnace 11 under the driving of the lifter 112 to perform the thin film deposition process, after the deposition for a preset time, the lifter 112 drives the wafer boat 111 to leave the deposition furnace 11, and then the wafer transfer device 13 transfers the wafer 123 with the thin film deposition process from the wafer boat 111 back to the wafer cassette 122. Of course, in other examples, depending on the structure, the wafer 123 may also be directly transferred from the wafer cassette 122 into the deposition furnace 11, which is not limited in this embodiment. The maximum number of wafers 123 loaded by the wafer boat 111 at a time can be set according to the requirement, such as 25, 50 or more wafers, preferably 150 wafers.

As an example, the wafer transferring apparatus 13 has a plurality of robots 131, such as 2, 3 or more, and preferably 5 robots 131, the number of the robots 131 is 5, and the number of the robots 131 is preferably 5, since the number of the wafers 123 in a single lot is 25, which is advantageous for completing the transfer of the wafers 123 in a lot as soon as possible.

As an example, the thin film deposition apparatus further includes a control device 15 connected to the weighing device 121. The control device 15 may be pre-stored with the weight of the wafer cassette 122, the weight of a single wafer 123, the weight of the wafer cassette 122 having a different number of wafers 123, and the weight of the thin films of different materials and/or different thicknesses arranged according to the previous production conditions, so that when the wafer 123 having completed the thin film deposition process is transferred from the deposition furnace 11 to the wafer cassette 122 by the wafer transfer device 13, the weight of the wafer cassette 122 is weighed, the weight of the wafer 123 can be immediately obtained based on the pre-stored data in the control device 15, the weight difference of the wafer 123 after the thin film deposition process is obtained based on the weight of the wafer 123 after the thin film deposition process and the initial weight of the wafer 123 (i.e., the weight before the thin film deposition), and whether the thin film deposited by the wafer 123 meets the requirement is determined based on the weight difference, for example, based on whether the weight difference is the same as or close to the data pre-stored in the control device 15 (i.e., within a weight deviation). In a further example, an alarm device (not shown) connected to the control device 15 may be provided to give an alarm when the film deposition on the wafer 123 is not satisfactory, and to remind a worker to perform corresponding processing, wherein the alarm device may be one or more of an audio alarm device, an optical alarm device, and an alarm device having a communication function. Of course, in other examples, the detection and judgment process may be performed by a worker. The control device 15 is preferably a device with multiple functions of displaying, storing, controlling, etc., such as a computer, and can display the weighing result on the control device 15 in time. Meanwhile, the operations of the other modules of the thin film deposition apparatus may also be controlled by the control device 15 (which may of course be controlled by another control unit). For example, the control device controls the deposition process of the deposition furnace 11, and the control device controls the transfer operation of the wafer transfer device 13 and the lifting of the lifter 112. In another example, the aforementioned various data, including the weight of the wafer cassette 122, the weight of the single wafer 123, the weight of the wafer cassette 122 having a different number of wafers 123, and the weight of the thin films of different materials and/or different thicknesses arranged according to the previous production conditions, may be stored in the weighing device 121 in advance, so that the weighing device 121 may obtain the required data by comparing the data with the data stored therein after the weighing is completed.

The thin film deposition apparatus may be suddenly down due to various unexpected factors such as power failure, earthquake, and the like, and the malfunction of the apparatus itself. Since the downtime is instantaneous, the wafer transfer device 13 may be in any one of the positions shown in fig. 2 to 5. For example, in fig. 2, the robot 131 just touches the wafer 123 in the pod 122, but the wafer 123 is still touching the pod 122, or there is no contact but a small distance; in fig. 3, the wafer 123 is stopped during its transfer into the cassette 122; in fig. 4, the robot 131 stops lifting the wafer 123 from the cassette 122 and moving it outward; in fig. 5, the robot arm 131 is outside the pod 122, has not yet begun transferring to the pod 122 or has exited from the pod 122, and is in a safe position. In the conventional thin film deposition apparatus, when an apparatus failure occurs, since the inside cannot be observed from the outside of the apparatus, it cannot be determined which state the wafer transfer device 13 is in, and therefore, it is necessary to open the chamber door of the apparatus, and a worker inserts the upper half into the apparatus to observe the position of the wafer transfer device 13 and take the next processing measure according to the observation result. Once the chamber door of the apparatus is opened, all wafers 123 within the entire apparatus are exposed to the atmosphere and risk contamination. In order to ensure the yield, the process engineer is usually required to determine whether to pull out the wafers 123 for inspection based on experience and the current situation to determine whether the process can be continued, which may increase the production time. In the thin film deposition apparatus of the present invention, since the weighing device 121 is disposed in the wafer loading area 12, and the weights of the cassettes 122 and the wafers 123 are known (which may be queried according to the delivery report provided by the wafer manufacturer or weighed in advance), after the entire weight of the cassette 122 loaded with the wafers 123 is weighed, the number of the wafers 123 on the cassette 122 is calculated according to the apparatus alarm and the information of the boat 111 (the number of the wafers 123 on the boat 111 can be known through the control device 15), and compared with the weight value, it is known whether the wafer transfer device 13 is located at a safe position. In the four cases of fig. 2-5, except the case of fig. 2 (where the wafer 123 is not detached from the pod 122 and thus its weight is still loaded on the pod 122), there are several other cases in which troubleshooting can be performed without opening the chamber door, which greatly reduces the workload. Assuming that the weight of one wafer 123 is 54g (g), if the control module finds that there are 10 wafers 123 on the pod 122, if the total weight of the 10 wafers 123 is about 540g, the 10 wafers 123 are not gripped yet, if the 10 wafers 123 are gripped by the robot 131 (5 wafers 123 are gripped simultaneously) about 270g, and if the total weight is not within the error value (i.e., in the interval greater than 270g and less than 540 g), such as 431g, the wafer 123 is still in contact with the pod 122 (i.e., a portion of the wafer 123 is loaded on the pod 122). Of course, the specific weight of the wafer 123 is different according to the material of the wafer 123, the size of the wafer 123, and other factors, and the corresponding error zone may also be set by the operator according to a large amount of previous production data and experience, which is not strictly limited in this embodiment.

In an example, the weighing device 121 weighs the wafer cassette 122 after each wafer 123 is transferred from the deposition furnace 11 to the wafer cassette 122 to obtain the weight of the wafer 123 after the thin film deposition process (the weight difference of the wafer cassette 122 before and after loading the wafer 123 is the weight of the wafer 123), that is, the weighing process of the wafer 123 is performed in a single wafer manner, after the weight of the wafer 123 after the thin film deposition process is weighed, the control device 15 compares the weight with the weight of the wafer 123 before the thin film deposition process is not performed to obtain the weight of the thin film deposited on the wafer 123, and determines whether the weight is normal according to past empirical data, thereby determining whether the thin film deposition of the wafer 123 meets the production requirement. Of course, in other examples, the weight of each wafer 123 before the thin film deposition process is performed may be weighed, and the present embodiment is not limited thereto. The single-chip mode can quickly detect the wafer with poor deposition, avoid the poor wafer from flowing into the next production process, contribute to improving the production efficiency and reducing the production cost.

In another example, the weighing device 121 weighs the wafer cassette 122 after every 5n wafers 123 (n is an integer greater than or equal to 1) are transferred from the deposition furnace 11 to the wafer cassette 122 to obtain the weight of the wafers 123 after the thin film deposition process, that is, the weighing process of the wafers 123 is performed every 5, every 10, or any other 5n wafers (n is an integer greater than or equal to 1) (preferably every 5). Since the deposition furnace 11 is generally divided into a plurality of regions, each region generally includes 5 wafers 123, and the process parameters of the same region are substantially the same, the weight of the wafers 123 in the same region after the thin film deposition process is completed is substantially the same, and the maximum number of the wafers 123 that can be transferred by the wafer transfer device 13 is also generally 5, so that the weighing process is performed in a manner of 5 wafers each time, which is helpful for improving the detection efficiency.

Of course, in other examples, the wafers 123 may be weighed in any number, and this embodiment is not particularly limited.

The weighing device 121 is a device having at least a weighing function, such as a high-density balance. As an example, the number of the weighing devices 121 is 2 or more, preferably 2. The plurality of weighing devices 121 may be arranged to simultaneously weigh different wafers 123, and the weighing devices 121 may simultaneously weigh the wafers 123 after the thin film deposition process is completed, or may be arranged to weigh one wafer 123 before the thin film deposition and weigh one wafer 123 after the thin film deposition process is completed, which is not strictly limited in this embodiment. However, the specifications of the different weighing devices 121 need to be the same, and the weighing results are shared completely, so as to ensure that the required data can be obtained quickly and accurately after weighing.

The better the weighing precision of the weighing device 121 is, the more beneficial the accurate determination of the film weight of the wafer 123 is. After obtaining a large amount of data through experiments, the inventor finds that the weighing precision of the weighing device 121 is milligrams, which can meet the general requirements. Of course, if the weighing device 121 is more feasible in microgram, a device with suitable precision can be selected according to different requirements, and different deviations can be set according to different weighing precisions.

The thin film deposition equipment can be used for the deposition of thin films made of various materials, such as the deposition of insulating films made of polysilicon, silicon oxide and the like and the deposition of thin films made of metals such as copper, aluminum and the like, and when the thickness of the deposited thin film is more than or equal to 50 micrometers (micrometers), particularly more than or equal to 200 micrometers, whether the deposited thin film meets the requirements or not can be basically judged by adopting the thin film deposition equipment. Of course, when the thickness of the deposited film is less than 200 μm, it is preferable to perform weighing in a multi-sheet manner, such as weighing in units of 5 sheets. The number of wafers during weighing is also highly related to the precision of the weighing device 121, and the higher the precision, the smaller the film thickness can be measured. Compared with the traditional film thickness detection equipment and method, the film deposition can avoid damage to the film layer in the detection process, and is beneficial to improving the production yield. Meanwhile, by adopting the film deposition equipment disclosed by the invention, the position of the wafer can be known in time when the equipment fails, so that reference is provided for troubleshooting operation of workers, the risk of wafer pollution is reduced, and the yield of the equipment is improved.

As shown in fig. 6, the present invention further provides a semiconductor processing method, which is performed based on the thin film deposition apparatus in any of the above-mentioned schemes, so that the foregoing description of the thin film deposition apparatus can be fully incorporated herein, and the same contents are not repeated as much as possible for the sake of brevity; also, the description herein of the semiconductor processing method is equally applicable to the aforementioned thin film deposition apparatus. The semiconductor process method comprises the following steps:

s01: after the wafers 123 are transferred from the wafer cassette 122 to the deposition furnace 11, a thin film deposition process is performed on the wafers 123, for example, the wafers 123 are transferred into the wafer boat 111 by using the wafer transfer device 13, where the number of the wafers 123 transferred by the wafer transfer device 13 at a time may be 5; the number of wafers 123 loaded on the wafer boat 111 at a time is 25, 50 or more; after loading of a preset number of wafers 123, the boat 111 enters the deposition furnace 11 under the driving of the lifter 112, and then the door of the deposition furnace 11 is closed for film deposition;

s02: transferring the wafer 123 having finished the thin film deposition process in the deposition furnace 11 back to the wafer box 122 and weighing the wafer 123 to obtain the weight of the wafer 123 after the thin film deposition process; after the film deposition process is completed, the door of the deposition furnace 11 is opened, the lifter 112 drives the boat 111 to descend, and then the wafer transfer device 13 transfers the wafer 123 having completed the film deposition process from the boat 111 back to the wafer box 122, in this process, the weighing device 121 weighs the wafer box 122, thereby obtaining the weight of the wafer 123 after the film deposition process;

s03: obtaining a weight difference of the wafer 123 after the thin film deposition process based on the weight of the wafer 123 after the thin film deposition process and the initial weight of the wafer 123, and determining whether the thin film deposited on the wafer 123 meets the requirement according to the weight difference; the initial weight of the wafer 123 may be provided by a manufacturer of the wafer 123 in advance, or may be obtained by weighing before the wafer 123 enters the deposition furnace 11, and the weight of the cassette 122 may also be provided by the manufacturer or obtained by weighing in advance, so that the steps of weighing the cassette 122 and/or weighing the cassette 122 loaded with the wafer 123 without the thin film deposition process before the wafer 123 enters the deposition furnace 11 may be included as required, which is not strictly limited in this embodiment.

As an example, the thin film deposition process includes one of a polysilicon deposition process and a silicon oxide deposition process, and a deposition film thickness of the wafer 123 in the thin film deposition process is 200 μm or more. When the thickness of the film deposited on the wafer 123 is thicker, for example, greater than or equal to 1000 μm, the wafer 123 may be selected to be single-piece or multiple-piece, for example, every 5 pieces are weighed; when the wafer 123 is deposited with a thinner film, such as less than 200 μm or less, the wafer 123 is preferably weighed in multiple pieces, such as every 5 or every 10 or other number of pieces.

As an example, the thin film deposition process is a batch-type thin film deposition process, and the semiconductor process method includes obtaining a weight difference of a single wafer 123 after the thin film deposition process based on the weight of the wafer 123 after the thin film deposition process and an initial weight of the wafer 123, and determining whether the thin film deposited on the wafer 123 meets requirements according to the weight difference.

In another example, the thin film deposition process is a batch-type thin film deposition process, and the semiconductor process method includes obtaining a weight difference of 5n (n is an integer greater than or equal to 1) wafers 123 after the thin film deposition process based on the weight of the 5n wafers 123 after the thin film deposition process and the initial weight of the 5n wafers 123, and determining whether the thin film deposited on the wafers 123 meets requirements according to the weight difference.

As an example, when the film deposition of the wafer 123 is determined to be not satisfactory, an alarm message may be sent to remind a worker to take a countermeasure as soon as possible. The alarm information comprises one or more of sound information, photoelectric information or character information and the like.

The semiconductor process method is beneficial to improving the production efficiency and the yield.

In summary, the present invention provides a thin film deposition apparatus and a semiconductor process. The thin film deposition equipment comprises a deposition furnace tube, a wafer loading area and a wafer transmission device; the deposition furnace tube is used for carrying out a thin film deposition process on the wafer; the wafer device area is provided with a weighing device, and the weighing device is used for bearing a wafer box with wafers and obtaining the weight of the wafers; the wafer transmission device is positioned between the deposition furnace tube and the wafer loading area and is used for transmitting wafers between the deposition furnace tube and the wafer box of the wafer loading area. The thin film deposition equipment can timely master the position of the wafer when the equipment fails, thereby providing reference for troubleshooting operation of workers and being beneficial to reducing the risk of wafer pollution. Meanwhile, the weight difference of the wafer before and after the film deposition process is compared to judge whether the film deposited on the wafer meets the requirement or not, and compared with the traditional detection method, the method is greatly simplified, the detection time is reduced, and the detection efficiency is improved. Therefore, the invention effectively overcomes various defects in the prior art and has high industrial utilization value.

The foregoing embodiments are merely illustrative of the principles and utilities of the present invention and are not intended to limit the invention. Any person skilled in the art can modify or change the above-mentioned embodiments without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention. Accordingly, it is intended that all equivalent modifications or changes which can be made by those skilled in the art without departing from the spirit and technical spirit of the present invention be covered by the claims of the present invention.