MULTICHAMBER PROCESSOR FOR SMALL SEMICONDUCTOR LABORATORIES - THE FIRST RESULTS

At the University of Turku in the Laboratory of Electronics and Information Technology a microcomputer controlled compact multichamber processor for semiconductor wafer processing has been designed and built. Several different processes like various chemical vapor depositions (CVD), plasma etching and sputtering can be carried out. At the moment the research processor contains two reactors for 150 mm silicon wafers and a third one for sputtering is under construction. The dimensions of the processor including gas cabinets and UHV pumping equipment are about (L x H x W) 4 x 1.2 x 1 m(3). The objectives of this system are to minimize the need of clean room space without compromising the dean process conditions and to provide the means for laboratory scale integrated circuit fabrication. For now this system can be used for processing CVD oxidation, both epitaxial and polysilicon growth and plasma etching. In the CVD reactor we have grown e.g. silicon homoepitaxial layers of good quality at low pressure and temperature (0.5-200 Pa, 650-750 degrees C) at the growth rate of about 5 nm/min.