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| 3- or 4-Tube Horizontal Furnace e.g. Model M206 |
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| Vertical Furnace for Production e.g. VF5300 |
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| Vertical furnace for R&D e.g. VF1000 |
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Сравнение вертикальных и горизонтальных печей для полупроводниковых применений
JTEKT Thermo Systems представлены в Европе
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We are frequently asked for the differences of vertical furnaces and
horizontal furnace and for a justification of the higher price of vertical
systems. Therefore we worked out the following table sheet. We hope that this
overview, this comparison sheet will help you to make a proper planning.
We compare in this sheet a horizontal furnace with a vertical furnace
for mass production (VF5300) and with our small vertical furnace
VF1000, which is a good alternative to horizontal systems for small companies
as well as for research institutes.
| Comparison furnace properties | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Feature |
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| Heat up speed | slower | faster | faster | ||||||
| Quartz boat loading time | slower | faster | faster | ||||||
| Cool down speed | equal | equal | equal | ||||||
| Max. temperature using KLL's advanced LGO heaters | 1100°C | 1250°C | 1250°C | ||||||
| Temperature uniformity | lower | higher | higher | ||||||
| Temperature interference between the tubes | 1 - 2 °C | none | none | ||||||
| Oxygen concentration tube center (end open) | 16% | 0,1% | 0,1% | ||||||
| Oxygen concentration tube end (end open) | high | 500ppm | 500ppm | ||||||
| Oxygen concentration tube center (end closed) | 0,1% | 300ppm | 300ppm | ||||||
| Oxygen concentration tube end (end closed) | 10 - 30 ppm | 10ppm | 10ppm | ||||||
| Air tight process chamber (atmospheric process) | no | yes | yes | ||||||
| HCl leak free | no | yes | yes | ||||||
| Cross contamination | possible | not possible | not possible | ||||||
| Process independence | not completely | yes | yes | ||||||
| Particle data | worse | very good | better | ||||||
| Flexibility: Run mixed diameter of wafers in one run | possible | not possible | not possible | ||||||
| Flexibility: Run different diameter of wafers run to run | possible | not possible | possible | ||||||
| Flexibility: Range of wafer diameters that can be processed | 3" - 6" (8") | 4" - 300mm | 3" - 300mm | ||||||
| Stock wafer cassettes | no | yes | no | ||||||
| Automation level | lower | very high | higher | ||||||
| Thickness uniformity wet oxidation 10nm, 8" wafer | no data | ± 0.9 % | ± 0.9 % | ||||||
| Thickness uniformity dry oxidation 20nm, 8" wafer | ± 2.4 % | ± 1.2 % | ± 1.2 % | ||||||
| Thickness uniformity poly-Silicon 400nm, 8" wafer | ± 2.0 % | ± 1.0 % | ± 1.0 % | ||||||
| Thickness uniformity Nitride100nm, 8" wafer | ± 2.5 % | ± 1.5 % | ± 1.5 % | ||||||
| Capacity | >150 wafer | 100 - 150 wafer | 25 wafers | ||||||
| Power consumption | high | lower | very low | ||||||
| Maintenance independence | no | yes | yes | ||||||
| Maintenance work, necessary | higher | lower | very low | ||||||
| Footprint / tube | 2.6 - 3.4 m2 (partially cleanroom) | 3.0 m2 (grey room) | 1.5 m2 (grey room) | ||||||
| Price | low | high | low | ||||||
Nowadays, mass production of semiconductor chips happens with silicon
wafers with 200mm or 300mm diameter. Vertical furnaces are used almost
exclusively. Only in older factories, which still use smaller wafer diameters,
horizontal furnaces are still common. For wafer diameters until 6" the
performance of such systems is in many cases still good enough to fulfil
the customer requests. However, the advantages of vertical systems are already
evident for this wafer size.
The result of this situation on the oven market was, that almost all
large furnace manufacturers stopped the further development of horizontal
furnaces. Development work is done today almost only for vertical systems.
Therefore vertical furnaces are superior to horizontal ones not only for
physical reasons, but also because they are the more modern production tool.
Their performance is much higher.
A main issue is furnace automation. Automation for horizontal furnaces
means mainly the installation of an elevator system for the loading of the
boat on the cantilever arm. The loading area is open to the clean room.
Vertical furnaces however are closed system with clean room class 1 inside. The
loading happens fully automatically from the cassette by advanced robot systems.
Other technical advantages of the vertical furnaces are the better
gas tight sealing of the furnace tube, as well as several options,
availabe only on vertical furnaces like improved temperature uniformity by
boat rotation or nitrogen load lock chamber.
For smaller enterprises, pilot lines, research institutes and universities
this development has the disadvantage that high performance is coupled to
high grade of automation and therefore to a high equipment price. For budget
reasons the only way out is quite often the purchasing of horizontal furnaces,
although the customers has to accept in this case the lower performance of such systems.
Since several years, the company of JTEKT Thermo Systems (previously Koyo Thermo Systems) can offer a
better solution. KTS developed a small vertical furnace named VF1000 for
these customers. The VF1000 is a full performance vertical furnace. The capacity of this
furnace has been kept small, because research customers require small capacity
in most cases. Therefore this system has been developed as a mini batch furnace
for 25 wafers (standard) or 50 wafers (option) capacity. The wafer loading
of the boat is done manually, which increases the flexibility of the furnace
a lot, while all other steps like the boat loading to the furnace and the
performance of the process recipes are handled fully automatically same as
on the mass production tools. The price of such a furnace finally is only
little bit higher compared to a horizontal furnace tube.
The required footprint of our small vertical furnace is by the way smaller
compared to the footprint of horizontal furnaces! We show you an example
of the layout of 12 tubes (5 tubes PECVD) in vertical VF1000 design and in
horizontal type 208 design (3 tubes per stack).
JTEKT Thermo Systems manufactures numerous versions of vertical furnaces and horizontal furnaces with full automation or manual loading. Smaller versions for pilot and laboratory applications are available.
JTEKT Thermo Systems and Crystec will be pleased to engineer a cost effective system to satisfy your most demanding and exacting requirements.
