Patent ID: 9666413
Date: 2017-05-30
CPC Classifications: H01J

Claim:
1. An ion implantation apparatus comprising: a vacuum processing chamber in which an ion implantation process for a wafer is performed by irradiating an ion beam on the wafer; one or more load lock chambers that are used for bringing the wafer into the vacuum processing chamber and taking out the wafer from the vacuum processing chamber; an intermediate conveyance chamber that is disposed to be adjacent to both the vacuum processing chamber and the load lock chamber; an intermediate conveyance mechanism that is disposed in the intermediate conveyance chamber and performs wafer conveyance between the load lock chamber and the intermediate conveyance chamber and wafer conveyance between the intermediate conveyance chamber and the vacuum processing chamber; a load lock chamber-intermediate conveyance chamber communication mechanism that includes a load lock chamber-intermediate conveyance chamber communication port for communication between the load lock chamber and the intermediate conveyance chamber and a gate valve capable of sealing the load lock chamber-intermediate conveyance chamber communication port; an intermediate conveyance chamber-vacuum processing chamber communication mechanism that includes an intermediate conveyance chamber-vacuum processing chamber communication port for communication between the intermediate conveyance chamber and the vacuum processing chamber and a movable shielding plate capable of shielding a part or the whole of the intermediate conveyance chamber-vacuum processing chamber communication port; a beam stopper disposed at a position in the vacuum processing chamber such that, in a case where the wafer is not present in a beam trajectory of the ion beam, the ion beam is incident onto the beam stopper; a first evacuation device connected to the vacuum processing chamber at a position different from the intermediate conveyance chamber-vacuum processing chamber communication port; and a beamline device that is disposed upstream of the vacuum processing chamber and that guides an ion beam irradiated on the wafer to the vacuum processing chamber, wherein the load chamber-intermediate conveyance chamber communication port and the intermediate conveyance chamber-vacuum processing chamber communication port are disposed for carrying the wafer through the communication ports, wherein the intermediate conveyance chamber is adjacent to the vacuum processing chamber in a direction in which the vacuum processing chamber and the beamline device are aligned, and wherein the intermediate conveyance chamber-vacuum processing chamber communication port is disposed on an upper side of the beam stopper so as to deviate from the beam trajectory.