Apparatus for electro-chemical deposition with thermal anneal chamber

• US 6,136,163 A
• Filed: 03/05/1999
• Issued: 10/24/2000
• Est. Priority Date: 03/05/1999
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Applied Materials Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Applied Materials Incorporated
• Inventors: Carl, Dan, Cheung, Robin, Sinha, Ashok, Tepman, Avi
• Primary Examiner(s): Valentine, Donald R.
• Application Number:
  US09/263,126
• Time in Patent Office: 599 Days
• Field of Search: 204/198, 204/269, 204/270, 204/241
• US Class Current: 204/198
• CPC Class Codes: C25D 17/001 Apparatus specially adapted for electrolytic coating of wafers, e.g. semiconductors or solar cells
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 21/67098 Apparatus for thermal treatment
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 21/6723 comprising at least one plating chamber electroless plating apparatuses C23C, electroplating apparatuses C25D

Abstract

The present invention generally provides an electro-chemical deposition system that is designed with a flexible architecture that is expandable to accommodate future designs rules and gap fill requirements and provides satisfactory throughput to meet the demands of other processing systems. The electro-chemical deposition system generally comprises a mainframe having a mainframe wafer transfer robot, a loading station disposed in connection with the mainframe, a rapid thermal anneal chamber disposed adjacent the loading station, one or more processing cells disposed in connection with the mainframe, and an electrolyte supply fluidly connected to the one or more electrical processing cells. One aspect of the invention provides a post electrochemical deposition treatment, such as a rapid thermal anneal treatment, for enhancing deposition results. Preferably, the electro-chemical deposition system includes a system controller adapted to control the electro-chemical deposition process and the components of the electro-chemical deposition system, including the rapid thermal anneal chamber disposed adjacent the loading station.

Claims

1. An electro-chemical deposition system, comprising:

a) a mainframe having a mainframe wafer transfer robot;

b) a loading station disposed in connection with the mainframe;

c) one or more processing cells disposed in connection with the mainframe;

d) an electrolyte supply fluidly connected to the one or more processing cells;

e) a spin-rinse-dry (SRD) chamber disposed between the loading station and the mainframe; and

f) a thermal anneal chamber disposed adjacent the loading station.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein the thermal anneal chamber comprises a rapid thermal anneal chamber having a heater plate.

3. The system of claim 2 wherein the heater plate comprises an atmospheric pressure heater plate.

4. The system of claim 1, further comprising:

e) a system controller adapted to control operations of one or more components of the electro-chemical deposition system.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein the thermal anneal chamber further comprises a gas inlet adapted to introduce one or more gases into the thermal anneal chamber.

6. The system of claim 5 wherein the system controller adapted to control the gas inlet to the chamber to provide a chamber environment having an oxygen content of less than 100 parts per million.

7. The system of claim 6 wherein the gas inlet is connected to a nitrogen gas source to introduce nitrogen into the chamber.

8. The system of claim 6 wherein the gas inlet is connected to a nitrogen gas source and a hydrogen gas source to introduce nitrogen and hydrogen into the chamber, wherein the hydrogen content is maintained at less than about 4%.

9. The system of claim 1 wherein the loading station comprises:

i) one or more wafer cassette receiving areas;

ii) one or more loading station wafer transfer robots for transferring a wafer between the loading station and the SRD station and between the loading station and the thermal anneal chamber; and

iii) a wafer orientor.

10. An electro-chemical deposition system, comprising:

a) a wafer transfer apparatus;

b) a loading station disposed in connection with the wafer transfer apparatus;

c) one or more processing cells disposed in connection with the wafer transfer apparatus;

d) an electrolyte supply fluidly connected to the one or more processing cells;

e) a wafer cleaner disposed in connection with the wafer transfer apparatus; and

f) a thermal anneal chamber disposed in connection with the wafer transfer apparatus.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the wafer cleaner is a spin-rinse-dry chamber.

12. A system for depositing a layer on a substrate, comprising:

at least one electrolyte processing cell;

at least one annealing chamber;

at least one substrate cleaner; and

a substrate transfer apparatus adapted to access the electrolyte processing cell, the annealing chamber, and the substrate cleaner.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the substrate cleaner is a spin-rinse-dry chamber.

14. The system of claim 12, wherein the substrate transfer apparatus comprises a first robot positioned between the substrate cleaner and the electrolyte processsing cell, and a second robot positioned between the substrate cleaner and the annealing chamber.