ALD SYSTEMS AND METHODS

• US 20120064245A1
• Filed: 02/26/2010
• Published: 03/15/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 02/27/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Veeco Instruments Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Cambridge NanoTech Incorporated (Veeco Instruments Incorporated)
• Inventors: Coutu, Roger R., Becker, Jill Svenja, Sundaram, Ganesh M., Deguns, Eric W.
• Granted Patent: US 9,777,371 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 427/248.1
• CPC Class Codes: C23C 16/4401 Means for minimising impurities, e.g. dust, moisture or residual gas, in the reaction chamber
• CPC Class Codes: C23C 16/45504 Laminar flow
• CPC Class Codes: C23C 16/45546 specially adapted for a substrate stack in the ALD reactor
• CPC Class Codes: C23C 16/45582 Expansion of gas before it reaches the substrate

Abstract

A gas deposition system (1000) configured as a dual-chamber “tower” includes a frame (1140) for supporting two reaction chamber assemblies (3000), one vertically above the other. Each chamber assembly (3000) includes an outer wall assembly surrounding a hollow chamber (3070) sized to receive a single generation 4.5 (GEN 4.5) glass plate substrate through a load port. The substrate is disposed horizontally inside the hollow chamber (3070) and the chamber assembly (3000) includes removable and cleanable triangular shaped input (3150) and output (3250) plenums disposed external to the hollow chamber (3070) and configured to produce substantially horizontally directed laminar gas flow over a top surface of the substrate. Each chamber includes a cleanable and removable chamber liner assembly (6000) disposed inside the hollow chamber (3070) to contain precursor gases therein thereby preventing contamination of chamber outer walls (3010, 3020, 3030, 3040).

Claims

1. A reaction chamber assembly (3000, 8100) for depositing thin film layers onto one or more substrates comprising:

an outer wall assembly for enclosing a hollow chamber comprising substantially opposing top and bottom outer walls (3010, 3020) attached to substantially opposing left and right outer side walls (3030, 3040) and substantially opposing front and back outer walls (3042, 3044);

a gas supply module for delivering one or more gas and vapor phase materials into the hollow chamber;

a vacuum pump for removing gas and vapor phase materials from the hollow chamber;

characterized in that the reaction chamber assembly further comprises;

an input rectangular aperture (3140) extending through one of the left and right outer side walls (3030), (3040);

an output rectangular aperture (3130) extending through the other of the left and right outer side walls (3040) wherein the input rectangular aperture and the output rectangular aperture are opposing with substantially identical aperture dimensions;

an input plenum (3150) disposed external to the outer wall assembly and in fluid communication with the gas supply module for delivering the one or more gas and vapor phase materials into the hollow chamber through the input rectangular aperture; and

,

an output plenum (3250) disposed external to the outer wall assembly and in fluid communication with the vacuum pump for removing gas and vapor phase materials from the hollow chamber through the output rectangular aperture.

2. The reaction chamber assembly of claim 1 further comprising one or more substrate support surfaces (3350, 8130) substantially horizontally disposed inside the hollow chamber and between the input and output rectangular apertures.

3. The reaction chamber assembly of claim 2 further comprising:

a front aperture (3035) passing through the front outer wall (3042) for providing access to the hollow chamber (3070) for loading and unloading the one or more substrates; and

,

an access door (3080) movable with respect to the front aperture for gas sealing the front aperture during deposition coating cycles when the access door is closed and for providing access to the hollow volume through the front aperture when the access door is opened.

4. The reaction chamber of claim 2 wherein the input plenum forms an input plenum chamber (3210) having an input end that receives the one or more gas and vapor phase materials from the gas supply module through an input port (3220) disposed proximate to the input end and an output end that delivers the one or more gas and vapor phase materials into the hollow chamber through the rectangular input aperture (3130) and wherein the input plenum chamber is shaped to substantially continuously expand in volume from the input end to the output end.

5. The reaction chamber assembly of claim 4 wherein the input plenum chamber (3210) has a first triangular cross-section in a substantially horizontal plane with the input end forming an apex of the first triangular cross-section and the output end forming a base of the first triangular cross-section and further wherein the output end is in fluid communication with the hollow chamber through the rectangular input aperture (3130).

6. The reaction chamber assembly of claim 5 wherein the input plenum chamber has a second trapezoidal cross-section in a substantially vertical plane with the input end forming an apex of the second trapezoidal cross-section and the output end forming a base of the second trapezoidal cross-section.

7. The reaction chamber of claim 6 wherein the output plenum (3250) forms an output plenum chamber (3300) having an output end for removing the gas and vapor phase materials from the output plenum chamber through an exit port module (3220) disposed proximate to the output end and an input end for withdrawing the one or more gas and vapor phase materials out of the hollow chamber through the corresponding one of the left and right rectangular apertures and wherein the output plenum chamber is shaped to substantially continuously decrease in volume from the input end to the output end.

8. The reaction chamber assembly of claim 2 wherein the output plenum chamber (3300) has a first triangular cross-section substantially in a horizontal plane with the output end forming an apex of the first triangular cross-section and the input end forming a base of the first triangular cross-section and further wherein the input end is in fluid communication with the hollow chamber through the rectangular output aperture (3140).

9. The reaction chamber assembly of claim 8 wherein the output plenum chamber has a second trapezoidal cross-section substantially in a vertical plane with the output end forming an apex of the second trapezoidal cross-section and the input end forming a base of the second trapezoidal cross-section.

10. The reaction chamber assembly of claim 9 wherein the exit port module comprises:

a circular exit port (3310) passing through one of a top and a bottom output plenum wall;

a pressure gage for sensing gas pressure inside the exit port module; and

,

a stop valve for isolating the exit port module from the vacuum pump when the stop valve is in a closed position.

11. The reaction chamber of claim 2 wherein the hollow volume has a first rectangular cross-section in a substantially horizontal plane with a hollow volume longitudinal length and a hollow volume transverse width wherein each of the one or more substrate support surfaces (3350, 8130) has rectangular dimensions with a support surface longitudinal length and a support surface transverse width each sized to fit inside the hollow volume first rectangular cross-section and to support a rectangular substrate having rectangular dimensions defined any one of the substrate size standards GEN 1 (300×

400 mm) through GEN 7 (2160×

2460 mm).

12. The reaction chamber of claim 2 further comprising a liner assembly (6000) disposed inside the hollow chamber and configured to prevent the one or more gas and vapor phase materials from contaminating inside surfaces of the outer wall assembly.

13. The reaction chamber assembly of claim 12 wherein the liner assembly includes a substantially horizontally disposed liner base wall (6010) positioned between the left and right apertures (3030, 3040) and wherein the liner base wall comprises the one or more substrate support surfaces.

14. The reaction chamber assembly of claim 13 wherein the liner assembly (6000) is configured for installation into and removal from the hollow chamber through the front aperture (3035).

15. The reaction chamber of claim 13 further comprising a back aperture (3045) passing through a back outer wall (3044) of the outer wall assembly wherein the liner assembly is configured for installation into and removal from the hollow chamber through the back aperture (3045).

16. The reaction chamber ofof claim 14 further comprising an input plenum liner (7015) comprising a rectangular tube shaped element installed through the rectangular input aperture associated to prevent the gas and vapor phase materials flowing through the rectangular input aperture from contaminating inside surfaces of the outer walls.

17. The reaction chamber of claim 16 further comprising an output plenum liner (7080) comprising a rectangular tube shaped element installed through the rectangular output aperture to prevent the gas and vapor phase materials flowing through the rectangular output aperture from contaminating inside surfaces of the outer walls.

18. The reaction chamber assembly of claim 1 wherein the reaction chamber (3000) comprises an upper reaction chamber (1120) further comprising:

a frame (1140) for supporting the upper reaction chamber (1120) in an upper position on the frame;

a second substantially identical bottom reaction chamber (1150) supported in a bottom position on the frame (1140).

19. The reaction chamber of claim 18 further comprising:

a plurality of first subsystems associated with the upper reaction chamber supported on the frame

a plurality of second subsystems associated with the bottom reaction chamber supported on the frame; and

,

wherein the upper reaction chamber and first subsystems operate independently of and may operate simultaneously with the bottom reaction chamber and second subsystems.

20. The reaction chamber of claim 19 further comprising a single gas supply module (10030) delivering gas or vapor phase materials into each of an upper input plenum (10050) associated with the upper reaction chamber (1120) and a bottom input plenum (10060) associated with the bottom reaction chamber (1150).

21. The reaction chamber of claim 20 further comprising a single exit port module in fluid communication with a vacuum pump for removing gas and vapor materials from each of an upper output plenum (10090) associated with upper reaction chamber and a bottom output plenum (10100) associated with the bottom reaction chamber.

22. The reaction chamber of claim 1 further comprising a trap disposed between the exit plenum and the vacuum pump wherein the trap includes a catalytically active hydrocarbon (HC) oxidation matrix suitable for reacting with undesirable hydrocarbon gases being withdrawn from the exit plenum.

23. A method for depositing thin film layers onto rectangular substrates that have a substrate longitudinal length and a substrate transverse width wherein at least one substrate is supported in a hollow rectangular chamber enclosed by an outer wall assembly comprising the steps of:

delivering one or more gas and vapor phase materials into an input plenum disposed external to the outer wall assembly between the hollow rectangular chamber and a gas supply module;

expanding the volume of the one or more gas and vapor phase materials inside the input plenum; and

,

delivering the one or more gas and vapor phase materials into the hollow rectangular chamber through a rectangular input aperture passing through a first side wall of the outside wall assembly, wherein the rectangular input aperture has a longitudinal aperture dimension that is centered with respect to and equal to or greater than one of the substrate longitudinal length and the substrate transverse width.

24. The method of claim 23 further comprising the step of drawing the gas or vapor phase material out of the hollow rectangular chamber through an rectangular output aperture passing through a second side wall of the outside wall assembly opposed to the rectangular input aperture wherein the input and output apertures have substantially identical rectangular dimensions and further drawing the gas and vapor phase material into an output plenum disposed externally to the outer wall assembly between the hollow rectangular chamber and a vacuum pump.

25. The method of claim 24 further comprising the step of compressing the volume of the one or more gas and vapor phase materials in the output plenum.

26. The method of claim 25 further wherein the one or more gas and vapor phase materials being drawn out of the hollow rectangular chamber comprises undesirable hydrocarbon materials further comprising the step of reacting the undesirable hydrocarbon materials with a catalytically active hydrocarbon (HC) oxidation matrix disposed in a trap positioned between the output plenum and the vacuum pump.