Chemical vapor deposition reactor and method of use thereof
First Claim
1. A CVD reactor for depositing at least one layer of material onto wafer substrates, comprising:
- a reaction chamber being generally circular about a central axis, said chamber having gas passages into and out of said chamber at the periphery and center thereof;
a horizontal top surface with said chamber extending substantially across said chamber, which can be held at a desired temperature and which in conjunction with a horizontal wafer support plate defines a wafer deposition zone below said top surface;
said horizontal wafer support plate for said wafer substrates disposed within said chamber below and spaced apart from said top surface, which can be held at a desired temperature and which in conjunction with said top surface defines said wafer deposition zone above said wafer support plate;
heating means to heat said wafer substrates positioned on said wafer support plate;
means for supplying said wafer deposition zone at least one reactive gas from which said layer of material is to be deposited on said wafer substrate and for exhausting excess gas and gaseous reaction products from said wafer deposition zone at the periphery and center of said reaction chamber; and
flow control means located at the periphery and center of said reaction chamber between said supplying and exhausting means and said wafer deposition zone, for passing said reactive gas radially through said wafer deposition zone and over said wafer substrates in a laminar flow and for preventing the recirculation of any reactive gas or gaseous reaction product over any wafer substrate or through any part of said reaction chamber which might affect said wafer substrate;
whereby said reactive gas passes over said wafer substrates once for a predetermined residence time.
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Abstract
A chemical vapor deposition (CVD) recstor is described which comprises an annular reaction zone with means for one or more reactive gases to be passed in single pass radial flow in which there is little lateral diffusion, means for preventing recirculation of reactive gases or reaction products from occurring at any point in the reaction chamber, and means in the reaction chamber for maintaining a laminar gas flow. rotational means permit the wafer support plates and wafers to be rotated around the central axis of the reaction zone and different gases may be passed over the wafers at different points in the reaction zone such that two or more materials can be deposited on the wafers during a single reactor run.
Rotation through alternating deposition zones can also be done repeatedly such that a series of alternating layers of two different deposited materials is built up. This allows for the formation of polymetallic layers by CVD alone or in combination with other deposition processes such as sputtering, plasma or evaporation deposition.
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Citations
46 Claims
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1. A CVD reactor for depositing at least one layer of material onto wafer substrates, comprising:
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a reaction chamber being generally circular about a central axis, said chamber having gas passages into and out of said chamber at the periphery and center thereof; a horizontal top surface with said chamber extending substantially across said chamber, which can be held at a desired temperature and which in conjunction with a horizontal wafer support plate defines a wafer deposition zone below said top surface; said horizontal wafer support plate for said wafer substrates disposed within said chamber below and spaced apart from said top surface, which can be held at a desired temperature and which in conjunction with said top surface defines said wafer deposition zone above said wafer support plate; heating means to heat said wafer substrates positioned on said wafer support plate; means for supplying said wafer deposition zone at least one reactive gas from which said layer of material is to be deposited on said wafer substrate and for exhausting excess gas and gaseous reaction products from said wafer deposition zone at the periphery and center of said reaction chamber; and flow control means located at the periphery and center of said reaction chamber between said supplying and exhausting means and said wafer deposition zone, for passing said reactive gas radially through said wafer deposition zone and over said wafer substrates in a laminar flow and for preventing the recirculation of any reactive gas or gaseous reaction product over any wafer substrate or through any part of said reaction chamber which might affect said wafer substrate; whereby said reactive gas passes over said wafer substrates once for a predetermined residence time. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15)
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16. A process for the deposition of at least one layer of material on a wafer substrate from a gas which comprises:
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a. positioning at least one wafer substrate horizontally within a generally circular wafer deposition zone; b. passing reactive gas radially through said zone and across the surface of said wafer substrate in a single pass and preventing the recirculation of any reactive gas or gaseous reaction product over any wafer substrate or through any part of said reaction chamber which might affect said wafer substrate; c. heating said wafer substrate to a point at which the desired deposition material will be formed from said reactive gas by reaction on said surface of said heated wafer substrate and will subsequently bond with said surface; and d. causing said deposition of material on said surface to be substantially uniform by maintaining said radial flow of gas at a flow rate to produce a predetermined residence time of gas over each such wafer substrate sufficiently short to prevent significant lateral diffusion or depletion of said gas across said wafer substrate. - View Dependent Claims (17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26)
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27. A CVD reactor for depositing at least one layer of material onto semiconductor wafer substrates, comprising:
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a horizontal plate for supporting said wafer substrates for deposition, said plate having a vertical axis and being symmetric about said vertical axis; a top surface above and spaced apart from said supporting plate, said top surface extending parallel to and substantially coextensive with said supporting plate, said top surface and supporting plate defining an annular wafer deposition chamber therebetween about said vertical axis with inner and outer peripheries; inlet and outlet means at said inner and outer peripheries for introducing reactive gas into and removing gas from said deposition chamber for radial gas flow with respect to said vertical axis; means for heating said wafer substrates on said wafer supporting plate; and means at the said inner and outer peripheries of said reaction chamber for controlling the flow of said reactive gas such that said gas flow through said deposition chamber is laminar and recirculation of reactive gas or gaseous reaction product over wafer substrates in said deposition chamber is prevented; whereby said gas flows over said wafer substrates a single time for a predetermined residence time. - View Dependent Claims (28, 29, 30, 31)
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32. A CVD reactor for depositing at least one layer of material onto semiconductor wafer substrates comprising
means for supplying gas for the deposition of material onto said wafer substrates; -
means displaced from said gas supplying means for exhausting gas from said gas supplying means; a wafer support plate having a wafer deposition region for holding said wafer substrates between said gas supplying means and said gas exhausting means; means for heating said wafer support plate during operation; a top plate parallel to and displaced above said wafer support plate; and first and second means for controlling the flow of said reactive gas through said wafer deposition zone and over said wafer substrates in a laminar flow and for preventing the recirculation of said gas or gaseous reaction product over a wafer substrate, said first flow controlling means located between said gas supplying means and said wafer deposition region, said second flow controlling means located between said wafer deposition region and said gas exhausting means; whereby said gas passes over said wafer substrates once for a predetermined residence time. - View Dependent Claims (33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46)
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Specification