Patent ID: 6863735

Claim:
An epitaxial growth furnace comprising: a sealed chamber; a pair of wafer holders for holding a pair of semiconductor wafers within said chamber; and means for rotating each of said wafer holders within said chamber, wherein formation of an epitaxial layer on a surface of each of said wafers is effected by supplying under a high temperature condition a source gas to a surface area of each of said wafers; wherein said wafer holders are rotatably supported at the peripheral thereof within said chamber and adapted to arrange said pair of wafers in such a manner that the wafers are disposed in mutually opposing positions with each said surface area adjacent to and parallel with each other so that a reaction chamber is formed between said wafers; wherein said surface areas are subject to epitaxial growth within said reaction chamber; wherein each of said wafer holders comprises: an opening for exposing one of said surface areas of the wafers to said reaction chamber; an opening flange adapted for engagement with a chamfered tapered face of a whole peripheral edge of one of said wafers on a side of said surface area thereof; a plurality of jaws for detachably engaging with an outer periphery of one of the wafers on a back surface side of said surface area thereof; a plurality of springs for respectively thrusting said jaws toward a center of said opening; and detachable actuating means for locking each of said jaws in a released position against respective thrust forces from said springs; wherein said jaws, said springs and said detachable actuating means are positioned only on said back surface side of each of said wafers, and wherein said means for rotating each of said wafer holders comprises: a rotating fin including a plurality of vanes attached onto the outer peripheral of each of said wafer holders; and rotating gas supply means for blowing a fin rotating gas to said vanes to cause said wafers to be rotated about a rotation axis along with each of said wafer holders within said chamber.