Processing apparatus

US4872938A · kind A · utility

Assignee

• TEXAS INSTRUMENTS INCORPORATED · US

Inventors

• Cecil J. Davis · Greenville, US
• Joseph V. Abernathy · Wylie, US
• Robert T. Matthews · Plano, US
• Randall C. Hildenbrand · Richardson, US
• Bruce Simpson · Toronto, CA
• John I. Jones · Plano, US
• Lee M. Loewenstein · Plano, US
• James G. Bohlman · Forney, US

Key dates

• Filing date: Apr 25, 1988
• Grant date: Oct 10, 1989
• Expiry date: Apr 25, 2008

Classification

• Technology area (CPC H): Electricity
• CPC primary: H01L21/67796
• WIPO field: Semiconductors
• WIPO sector: Electrical engineering

Abstract

A process module which is compatible with a system using vacuum wafer transport in which wafers are generally transported and processed in a face down position under vacuum, and which also includes an additional wafer movement, wherein, after a wafer has been emplaced face down, in a position where it can be clamped against the susceptor, the susceptor is rotated from its approximately horizontal position up to a more nearly vertical position. In the more nearly vertical position, the wafer can be processed by a top process module, which may be, e.g., a sputter system, an implanter, or an inspection module. Another process module is included in the bottom part of the chamber, so that the wafer can be processed by the lower process module while in its substantially horizontal position and processed by the upper process module when it is in its more nearly vertical position. This is especially advantageous when the lower process module is a plasma cleanup module and the top module is a deposition module.