Shower head of a wafer treatment apparatus having a gap controller

Abstract

A shower head for adjusting distribution of a reactant gas in a process region of a semiconductor manufacturing reaction chamber, wherein a top plate has a gas port for introducing the reactant gas into the reaction chamber; a face plate, having through holes, disposed opposite the process region; a first baffle plate, having through holes, disposed between the top plate and the face plate and capable of moving up or down, wherein the first baffle plate has a top surface that defines a first gap for forming a first lateral flow passage; a second baffle plate, having through holes, disposed between the first baffle plate and the face plate and capable of moving up or down, wherein the second baffle plate has a top surface that defines a second gap for forming a second lateral flow passage; and a gap controller for determining widths of the first and second gaps.

Description

BACKGROUND OF-THE INVENTION [0001] 1. Field of the Invention [0002] The present invention relates to an apparatus for manufacturing a semiconductor device. More particularly, the present invention relates to a shower head provided to supply a reactant gas using plasma to a reaction chamber in a wafer treatment apparatus. [0003] 2. Description of the Related Art [0004] As the integration density of semiconductor devices increases, a design rule decreases and the diameter of a wafer increases. Large wafers often undergo multiple steps for fabricating semiconductor devices, including, for example, deposition processes for depositing material layers on a wafer or etch processes for etching material layers on the wafer in a predetermined pattern by supplying a reactant gas from the upper portion of a reaction chamber for depositing or etching the wafer. In particular, as wafer sizes increase, during etch processes, it is important to optimize uniformity in etch rates over the entire wafe...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

The present invention provides a shower head for controlling the distribution amount of a reactant gas during a fabrication process for a semiconductor device. The shower head has a top plate, a face plate, and a first baffle plate with a plurality of through holes. A second baffle plate is also included. A gap controller is used to determine the width of the through holes. The shower head can compensate for degradation of etch rate uniformity over the wafer surface by adjusting the distribution of the reactant gas. This results in optimal uniformity of etch rate over the entire wafer surface.

Problems solved by technology

Thus, the configuration of the conventional shower head involves limitations in developing a new process.

Furthermore, development of a new etching apparatus usually requires numerous simulation processes and significant expense.

For example, in the case of an etch process for forming a gate electrode on a wafer, it may not be desirable to obtain etching uniformity over the entire wafer surface during an etch process step for forming an etch mask layer before gate patterning.

However, in the conventional shower head in which the respective positions of the through holes provided in each baffle and the gap between the baffles are fixed, it is impossible to supply different amounts of gas to different positions on the wafer, thereby increasing the difficulty to optimize the uniformity of a pattern to be formed over the entire wafer surface.

Problems associated with an unevenness in an etch rate during an etch process during a fabrication process for a semiconductor device adversely affect the performance of the device and yields.

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