Massively parallel atomic layer deposition/chemical vapor deposition system

Abstract

A method and apparatus for the use of individual vertically stacked ALD or CVD reactors. Individual reactors are independently operable and maintainable. The gas inlet and output are vertically configured with respect to the reactor chamber for generally axi-symmetric process control. The chamber design is modular in which cover and base plates forming the reactor have improved flow design.

1 . An apparatus comprising: 
 a load lock unit to receive a material and to load the material into a processing chamber to deposit a film layer thereon; and    a plurality of vertically stacked deposition reactors to receive the material from said load lock unit to place the material in one of said reactors, said plurality of stacked deposition reactors having a low vertical profile relative to length and width dimensions, but in which the reactors have separate internal gas inlet at one vertical end and separate internal exhaust at an opposite vertical end of the processing chambers of said reactors to provide a generally axi-symmetric vertical gas flow across the material when the material is placed in one of the processing chambers for processing.    
   
   
       2 . The apparatus of  claim 1 , wherein said load lock unit comprises a plurality of load lock units stacked vertically to correspond to said plurality of vertically stacked deposition reactors and in which said load lock units are vertically positioned to match vertical positions of said reactors.  
   
   
       3 . The apparatus of  claim 2  wherein the vertical positions of the plurality of corresponding load locks allow plurality of materials to be loaded into said reactors without further translation to move the material in a vertical direction when loading into the processing chambers of said reactors.  
   
   
       4 . The apparatus of claim I wherein materials are to be loaded into individual reactors and processed separately in the individual reactors.  
   
   
       5 . The apparatus of  claim 4 , said reactors are to be utilized to deposit the film layer by atomic layer deposition or plasma assisted atomic layer deposition.  
   
   
       6 . The apparatus of  claim 4 , wherein said reactors are to be utilized to deposit the film layer on the material by chemical vapor deposition or plasma assisted chemical vapor deposition.  
   
   
       7 . An apparatus to perform atomic layer deposition or chemical vapor deposition comprising: 
 a load lock unit to receive a plurality of substrates and to load the substrates into processing chambers to deposit a film layer thereon; and    a plurality of vertically stacked deposition reactors to receive the substrates from said load lock unit to place the substrate in individual ones of said reactors, said plurality of stacked deposition reactors having a low vertical profile relative to length and width dimensions, but in which the reactors have separate internal gas inlet at a top of the processing chamber and separate internal exhaust at a bottom of the processing chamber to provide a generally axis-symmetric vertical gas flow across the substrates when the substrates are placed in the processing chambers of individual reactors, the individual reactors having horizontally disposed passages to the internal gas inlet and internal exhaust, wherein the inlet passages and exhaust passages are integrated therein.    
   
   
       8 . The apparatus of  claim 7 , wherein said load lock unit comprises a plurality of load lock units stacked vertically to correspond to said plurality of vertically stacked deposition reactors and in which said load lock units are vertically positioned to match vertical positions of said reactors.  
   
   
       9 . The apparatus of  claim 8  further comprising a mini-environment to interface said load lock units, which operate in a clean environment for substrate processing to a non-processing environment.  
   
   
       10 . The apparatus of  claim 9  further comprising a wafer handling device coupled to said mini-environment to allow wafer entry into mini-environment.  
   
   
       11 . The apparatus of  claim 10  wherein said wafer handling device accepts a front opening unified pod.  
   
   
       12 . The apparatus of  claim 9  wherein said mini-environment includes an atmospheric robot with vertical translation to position the substrates at corresponding vertical positions to load into said vertically stacked load lock units.  
   
   
       13 . The apparatus of  claim 7  wherein the vertical positions of the plurality of corresponding load locks allow the substrates to be loaded into said reactors without further vertical translation by a vacuum robot which loads the substrates from the load lock units into the processing chambers of said reactors.  
   
   
       14 . The apparatus of  claim 10  wherein said load lock units include a vertical translation device to position the substrates at corresponding vertical positions to load into said vertically stacked load lock units.  
   
   
       15 . The apparatus of  claim 7 , wherein the processing chambers of said reactors are to be utilized to process a semiconductor wafer.  
   
   
       16 . The apparatus of  claim 7 , wherein said apparatus is a cluster tool having a plurality of processing modules and in which individual processing modules include a vertical stack of said reactors.  
   
   
       17 . The apparatus of  claim 16  wherein said processing modules are located about a central vacuum hub having a central robot to move the substrates from said corresponding load lock units to said-stacked reactors of the processing modules, but where the central robot need not move the wafers in the vertical direction to load the substrates into the processing chambers of said reactors.  
   
   
       18 . The apparatus of  claim 7  wherein said reactors have separate source lines to said reactors to separately source in a processing gas to said reactors.  
   
   
       19 . The apparatus of  claim 18  further including a controller to separately control sourcing of the gas to said reactors.