SUSCEPTOR PLATE FOR HIGH-TEMPERATURE HEAT TREATMENT

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a susceptor plate for batch-processing a silicon wafer at high temperatures. SOLUTION: The susceptor plate 100 is so designed as to store one wafer. A plurality of such susceptor plates 100, each mounted with a wafer, are arranged vertically at intervals in a susceptor plate holder during batch processing or furnace processing. The susceptor plate 100 can support the wafer by the "entire surface" from below, and has an opening 130 of a diameter up to 20 mm within a support face 110. A projection is suppressed to be a minimum. Consequently, the susceptor plate 100 can prevent the wafer from warping beyond the plastic deformation point. In order to remove projections exceeding a prescribed height, the support face 110 is polished or ground. Regarding the processing temperature, a heat-up speed of the susceptor plate 100 can be increased, without plastic deformation of the wafer or attaching thereof to the susceptor plate. In one embodiment, the susceptor plate 100 is warped in advance, in a direction opposite to the warping direction. COPYRIGHT: (C)2004,JPO