JPH0214198Y2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a material supply device for inserting a material to be exposed into an exposure chamber of an electron beam exposure apparatus.

Conventional material supply equipment for electron beam exposure equipment puts the material into a preliminary exhaust chamber that has a gate valve between the exposure chamber and the atmosphere side, exhausts the material from 760 Torr to about 10 ^-3 Torr, and then releases the material to the preliminary exhaust chamber. The material is inserted into the exposure chamber by opening a gate valve between the exhaust chamber and the exposure chamber, and this pre-evacuation time requires at least several minutes, making it impossible to supply the material quickly.

The present invention was made with the aim of solving the drawbacks of such conventional devices and providing a material supply device for electron beam exposure equipment that can quickly supply materials and has a simple structure. An example of the invention will be described in detail.

FIG. 1 is a partial cross-sectional view of one embodiment of the present invention, in which 1 is an exposure chamber, and the exposure chamber has an exhaust system 2.
The exhaust gas is evacuated to about 10 ^-7 Torr. 3
is a guide cylinder provided horizontally from the atmosphere side toward the exposure chamber side, and the guide cylinder 3 extends from the atmosphere side to the lower part of a material introduction hole 6, which will be described later. A moving member 4 is provided along the guide tube 3 so as to be freely insertable and removable. As shown in an enlarged view in FIG. 2, the movable member 4 is provided with a first valve body 5 at its distal end so as to be movable up and down with respect to the member 4. Reference numeral 6 denotes an introduction hole for introducing a material into the exposure chamber 1. The first valve body 5 is driven to come into close contact with the peripheral wall of the material introduction hole 6 on the outside of the exposure chamber 1 and to move away from it. The first valve body 5 has a recess 7, a spacer 8 is arranged at the bottom of the recess 7, and a material 9 (or a cassette thereof) is arranged above the spacer 8. . When the material 9 is added,
The sizes of the recess 7 and the spacer 8 are selected so that there is almost no extra gap. The bottom of the spacer 8 has a hole into which a second shaft 12, which will be described later, is inserted. The vicinity of the material introduction hole 6 is evacuated by a vacuum pump (not shown) connected to an exhaust pipe 10, and therefore the guide tube 3 between the vacuum pump (not shown) and the atmosphere side is evacuated. A vacuum gradient (pressure gradient) is formed along the That is, in the exhaust pipe between the part closest to the vacuum pump (not shown) in the exhaust pipe 10 and the atmosphere side, and in the guide cylinder in which the moving member 4 moves (including the vicinity of the material introduction hole 6), the vacuum A vacuum degree (pressure) gradient is formed such that the pressure gradually increases as the distance from the pump (not shown) increases. At this time, for example, the degree of vacuum near the material introduction hole 6 of the guide tube 3 is
The vacuum level is about 1 Torr. Reference numeral 11 denotes a first shaft that moves up and down by a drive mechanism not shown.
When closing the material introduction hole 6, the first moving shaft 11 is raised through the notch at the bottom of the moving member 4 and brought into contact with the bottom of the first valve body 5, and then the first
The valve body 5 is brought into close contact with the surrounding wall of the introduction hole 6 as shown in FIG. 12 is a second shaft provided coaxially with the first shaft 11, and the second shaft 12 also moves up and down, and when it rises, it passes through the hole provided in the first valve body 5. It is inserted into the hole of the spacer 8 and lifts up the material 9 together with the spacer 8. Reference numeral 13 denotes a second valve body that opens and closes the exposure chamber 1 from the inside by moving up and down. 14 is a bellows for maintaining vacuum. Reference numeral 15 designates an arm, and the material 9 lifted to the same height as the arm is transferred to the left in the drawing by the moving arm and placed on a moving stage 16. Also 17,
18 is an O-ring for vacuum sealing.

In the above-described configuration, first, as shown in FIG. 2, the first and second shafts 11 and 12 are pulled down so that the top surface of the first valve body 5 is at the same height as the top surface of the moving member 4. , move the moving member 4 to the right until the recess 7 of the first valve body 5 comes out of the guide tube 3. At this time, of course, the exposure chamber 1 is closed by the second valve body 13. After taking out the exposed material 9 from the recess 7 and storing a new material 9 in the recess 7, the moving member 4 is inserted into the guide tube 3 and moved to the left until the material 9 aligns with the introduction hole 6. .
Next, the first shaft 11 is raised to open the first valve body 5.
At the same time, the second shaft 12 is also raised and inserted into the hole of the spacer 8. Furthermore, the first
The shaft 11 and the second shaft 12 are raised together, and the first valve body 5 is brought into close contact with the peripheral wall of the material introduction hole 6 to close the hole 6, as shown in FIG. Therefore, the second valve body 13 is raised to open the hole 6 from the inside, and the second shaft 12 is raised to insert the material 9 together with the spacer into the exposure chamber 1. After that, the material 9 is transferred to the left by the arm 15 and transferred to the stage 1.
6. Place it on top. Finally, after lowering the second shaft 12, the second valve body 13 is lowered to open the material introduction hole 6.
Close from the inside.

In the apparatus based on the present invention described above, after the material introduction hole 6 is closed by the first valve body 5, the second valve body 13 is opened and the material 9 is inserted into the exposure chamber 1, but the material 9 is inserted into the recess. 7, the volume of the extra space in the recess is 1/10 of the volume of the exposure chamber.
000, and the degree of vacuum in this part is evacuated to about 1 Torr, so even if the second valve body 13 is opened, the amount of gas molecules that enter the exposure chamber is minute, and the exposure It does not worsen the vacuum level in the room. Therefore, after the moving member 4 is inserted into the guide tube 3, the material 9 can be immediately inserted into the exposure chamber without the need for preliminary evacuation, etc., and the material can be quickly supplied.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a partial sectional view of an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is an enlarged view of a portion of FIG. 1. DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1... Exposure chamber, 3... Guide tube, 4... Moving member, 5... First valve body, 6... Material introduction hole, 7...
...Recess, 8...Spacer, 9...Material, 10...
...Exhaust pipe, 11...First shaft, 12...Second shaft, 13...Second valve body, 16...Movement stage.

Claims (1)

[Scope of utility model registration request] a material introduction hole for introducing material into the exposure chamber;
between a guide tube extending in a substantially horizontal direction from the atmosphere side to the lower part of the material introduction hole, a movable member that is detachably provided along the guide tube, and the atmosphere side along the guide tube. It has an exhaust means for forming a pressure gradient, a recess substantially the same size as the material to be exposed, and a hole penetrating the bottom of the recess, and is placed movably up and down at the tip of the movable member. a first valve body,
With the movable member inserted into the guide tube so that the material located in the concave portion is located directly below the introduction hole, the first valve body is raised, and the first valve body is placed in the introduction hole. The material is moved through a first shaft for closely contacting the surrounding wall and a hole provided coaxially with the first shaft and provided in the first valve body while maintaining airtightness, and the material is introduced into the material introduction hole. A material supply device for an electron beam exposure apparatus, comprising: a second shaft for lifting the material into the exposure chamber through the material; and a second valve body for closing the material introduction hole from inside the exposure chamber.