JP2981682B2 - Vacuum evaporation system of continuous film formation method - Google Patents

Description

Description: TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to a vacuum deposition apparatus of a continuous film formation system in which a substrate holder is moved in and out while a vacuum state of a deposition tank is maintained.

(Prior Art) In a conventional vacuum vapor deposition apparatus, it is known in a batch processing type vacuum vapor deposition apparatus to perform revolving driving while rotating a substrate holder or simply rotating (only rotation). In this type of apparatus, it is necessary to open the vacuum chamber to the atmosphere and replace the substrate holder each time the vapor deposition processing is completed.

In order to avoid opening to the atmosphere in each deposition cycle,
In recent years, a continuous film formation type vacuum evaporation apparatus has been frequently used. This is, for example, as shown in FIG.
Are provided with an inlet tank 2 and an outlet tank 3, and each of the inlet tank 2 and the outlet tank 3 is independently evacuated, whereby the substrate holder 6 is maintained while the vacuum state of the vapor deposition tank 1 is maintained. It is designed to enter and exit. Each of the tanks 1 to 3 can be separated in an airtight manner by a gate means 4, and the inlet tank 2 and the outlet tank 3 can be closed in an airtight manner by a hatch 5. The substrate holder 6 is forcibly fed and moved by the transporting means 7 provided in each of the tanks 1 to 3, and is captured and supported by the rotating mechanism 11 in the evaporation tank 1.

FIG. 6 shows a capturing mode of the substrate holder 50 in the conventional apparatus. The board holder 50 is provided with a pair of left and right hooks 51, and a pair of engaging pins 52 corresponding to the two hooks 51.
Is provided at the lower end of the suspension arm 54 of the rotation mechanism 53.
At the time of capturing, the engaging pin 52 is made to stand by in parallel with the transport roller 55, and in this state, the substrate holder 50 is fed by the transport roller 55 in the direction of arrow a, and both hooks 51 are hooked on the engaging pin 52. Next, the group of transport rollers 55 is lowered in the direction of arrow b, and the substrate holder 50 is hung on the hanger arm 54. In this state, the rotation mechanism 53 is driven to rotate, and the deposition is performed while rotating the substrate holder 50.

(Problems to be Solved by the Invention) As described above, in the vacuum evaporation apparatus of the continuous film formation system, the vacuum chamber and the inlet / outlet chamber adjacent thereto are maintained independently in a vacuum state, and Using the feed operation,
Continuous film formation is realized by automatically mounting the substrate holder on a rotating mechanism. However, in this type of apparatus, since the substrate holder simply rotates together with the suspension arm, it cannot perform the rotation / revolution operation. This means that the film thickness varies depending on the attachment site of the film-forming substrate to the substrate holder, and cannot cope with a case where a high film-forming quality is required.

For example, it is not impossible to add a rotation / revolution mechanism to a rotation mechanism in a vacuum chamber. However, in this case, it is impossible to automatically mount the plurality of substrate holders on the rotation mechanism only by the feeding operation of the transfer means.

In order to perform automatic mounting, it is conceivable to use an automatic mounting device that can operate independently, such as a chucking mechanism or a docking mechanism. However, in such a case, the entire device becomes complicated. In addition, when there is no need to rotate / revolve the substrate holder, the rotation mechanism must be replaced. In any case, it is necessary to open the vacuum chamber to the atmosphere for each film formation target and replace the rotation mechanism. Become.

The present invention solves the above-mentioned problems,
By improving the driving mode of the substrate holder, the rotation / revolution drive of the substrate holder is realized while maintaining the automatic mounting of the substrate holder using the feeding operation of the transfer means, and the substrate holder to be fed into the vacuum chamber is simply selected and used. Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to enable different grades of vapor deposition processing to be performed according to a film formation target, and to simultaneously improve versatility and productivity of this type of vacuum vapor deposition apparatus.

(Means for Solving the Problems) In a vacuum evaporation apparatus according to the present invention, a vacuum tank is arranged adjacent to an evaporation tank, and each tank is provided with a transfer means for feeding and operating a substrate holder on which a group of substrates is mounted. It is assumed that a rotation mechanism for rotating the substrate holder in a suspended state is provided on the ceiling wall of the vapor deposition tank.

The rotation mechanism is configured to include a suspension arm that captures the substrate holder sent by the transport unit and supports the substrate holder in a suspended manner, and a driving source that rotationally drives the suspension arm, The holder includes a first substrate holder that rotates together with the suspension arm and a second substrate holder that revolves while rotating and receiving the rotational force of the suspension arm. The first and second substrate holders Is that a plurality of connecting members latched and captured by the suspension arm are respectively provided at a common position,
The second substrate holder includes a frame on which the connecting member is mounted, a planetary motion mechanism supported by the frame, and a self-revolving holder that rotates together with the planetary motion body of the planetary motion mechanism. A stopper is provided between the second substrate holder and the non-rotating wall of the rotation mechanism for fixing the sun wheel of the planetary movement mechanism so as not to rotate when the frame is suspended by the suspension arm. In addition, the first and second substrate holders must be selected and used according to a film formation target.

(Operation) At the time of film formation, one of the first and second substrate holders is selected according to the film formation target, and is sent into the vacuum chamber by the transfer means, which is automatically mounted on the suspension arm of the rotating mechanism. In order to perform this automatic mounting, a connecting member is provided at a common position of each substrate holder.

The first substrate holder supported by the suspension arm only rotates together with the suspension arm. Similarly, the second substrate holder rotates together with the suspension arm, but at this time, the sun ring of the planetary motion mechanism is fixed by the stopper, so that the planetary motion body revolves around the sun ring while rotating. I have no choice. Therefore, the orbiting and revolving holder accompanying the planetary moving body also orbits while revolving, so that a film can be uniformly formed on a group of film forming substrates mounted on the orbiting and revolving holder.

(Example) Hereinafter, an example of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

1 to 5 show a vacuum deposition apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. In FIG. 5, the vacuum evaporation apparatus has an inlet tank 2 (vacuum tank) and an outlet tank 3 (vacuum tank) arranged with a central evaporation tank 1 interposed therebetween.
4 and 4 are provided, and the openings of the inlet tank 2 and the outlet tank 3 are hatched.
It can be closed in an airtight manner. Each tank 1
3 is provided with a conveying means 7 comprising a group of drive rollers for feeding the substrate holders 6A and 6B to the next tank.

A rotating mechanism 9 for rotating the substrate holders 6A and 6B in a suspended state and an electron beam type evaporation source 1 are provided inside the evaporation tank 1.
0, a lifting means 11 to be described later and the like are provided. Also,
An automatic loading / unloading device 12 for inserting and removing the deposition source 10 while maintaining a vacuum state in the tank is provided on the outer surface at the bottom of the deposition tank 1.
Are provided to face each other. This automatic access device 12
Between the chamber 13 and the vapor deposition tank 1, a gate means 14 for maintaining airtightness in the tank is also provided.

The inlet tank 2 and the outlet tank 3 can be brought into the same vacuum state as that of the vapor deposition tank 1 by a vacuum device (not shown), and by closing the gate means 4 and opening each hatch 5, the inside is exposed to the atmosphere. It can be opened and the substrate holders 6A and 6B can be moved in and out.

In FIG. 3, a rotation mechanism 9 includes a drive source 18 including a motor 16 and a reduction gear mechanism 17, a drive shaft 20 which is rotatably supported by a bearing tube 19 and outputs the power of the drive source 18, and It consists of three fixed suspension arms 21 and the suspension arms 21
Are disposed in a state of being located above the substrate holders 6A and 6B in the vapor deposition tank 1 by the transport path. Hanging arm 21
Are arranged at equal intervals in the circumferential direction, and connecting claws 22 are protruded inward from the respective protruding ends of the arms. Inside the drive shaft 20, there is provided a shaft 23 fixedly supported by the bearing cylinder 19 so as not to rotate, and a stopper 24 is provided at a lower end of the shaft 23.

The substrate holders 6A and 6B are prepared in two types: a type that rotates only as shown in FIGS. 4 and 5, and a type that rotates and revolves as shown in FIGS. 1 to 3. It is used properly according to.

The first substrate holder 6A of the former type has a transfer frame 27 fixed around an umbrella-shaped holder main body 26, and a group of substrates 28 to be vapor-deposited is mounted on the inner surface of the holder main body 26. The transport frame 27 is provided with three U-shaped connecting members 29 corresponding to the connecting claws 22 of the suspension arm 21.

The second substrate holder 6B is a three-pronged frame
30, a planetary gear mechanism (planetary motion mechanism) 31 supported on the lower surface side of the frame 30, three self-revolving holders 32 rotating together with each planetary gear 34 (planetary motion body) of the mechanism 31, It is composed of a connecting member 29 and the like provided at each protruding end of 30. The connecting member 29 has the same structure as the connecting member 29 for the first substrate holder 6A, and is provided at a common position.

1 and 2, a planetary gear mechanism 31 is provided with a sun gear 33 (sun ring) disposed at the center of the lower surface of the frame 30.
And three planetary gears 34, 34, ... meshing with the sun gear 33,
It is composed of bearings 35, 36 for supporting shafts 33a, 34a for each gear. The center shaft 37 of the self-rotating holder 32 is screwed to the lower end of the shaft 34a of each planetary gear 34.

The self-revolving holder 32 includes three holder frames 38 extending radially from a center shaft 37, a plate-shaped holder unit 39 detachably mounted on the frames 38, a holder frame 38 and a holder unit 39. And a group of substrates (not shown) is mounted on the inner surface of the holder unit 39.

As described above, the suspension arm 18 is provided above the transport path of the substrate holders 6A and 6B in the tank.
In order to catch the substrate holders 6A and 6B supported by the transfer means 7 in the tank with the suspension arm 21, a lift means 11 is provided below the transfer means 7. In FIG. 3, the lifting means 11 is provided outside the tank, a plurality of lift rods 42 for pushing up the connecting member 29 of each substrate holder 6A, 6B, a pinion rack mechanism (not shown) for driving the lifting rod 42 up and down, and the like. And a chain mechanism for transmitting the power of the motor to the pinion.

The substrate holders 6A and 6B sent from the inlet tank 2 are supported by the transfer means 7 in the vapor deposition tank 1 and positioned by a stopper (not shown) in a state where the whole is located directly below the suspension arm 21. In this state, each of the substrate holders 6A and 6B is
1 and the connecting member 29 is
Is lifted up to a level located in the plane of rotation of the connecting pawl 22 of FIG. In this state, the rotation mechanism 9 is started to rotate the suspension arm 21 by a predetermined amount, and the connection claw 22 is inserted into the lower surface of the connection member 29. Then, when the lift means 11 is lowered, the substrate holder 6A, 6B can be suspended and supported by the suspension arm 21.

In a state where the second substrate holder 6B is supported by the suspension arm 21, a stopper 24 is provided on the shaft 23 in order to fix the sun gear 33 of the planetary gear mechanism 31 so as not to rotate. 2, the stopper 24 is provided at a lower end of the stopper shaft 43, a stopper shaft 43 supported so as to be able to move back and forth with respect to the shaft body 23, a spring 44 for urging the stopper shaft 43 forward and backward. When the substrate holder 6B is lifted by the lift means 11 and the stopper shaft 43 is pushed into the shaft body 23 against the spring 44 as described above, the press body 45 is Spring 44
The rotation of the sun gear 33 is blocked by utilizing the fact that the repulsive force strongly presses the shaft 33a of the sun gear 33. Thus, only after fixing the sun gear 33, each planetary gear 34 can revolve while rotating, and if there is no stopper 24, the planetary gear 34 only rotates together with the frame 30 and rotates around the shaft 34a. You cannot spin.

The vacuum vapor deposition apparatus as described above uses one of the substrate holders 6A and 6B according to the film formation target and performs vapor deposition, thereby utilizing each of the substrate boulders 6A and 6B using the feeding operation of the transport unit 7. Then, it can be automatically mounted on the rotating mechanism 9 to perform different grades of vapor deposition processing.

In the above embodiment, the simplest vacuum tank arrangement in which the vacuum tanks adjacent to the vapor deposition tank 1 are the inlet tank 2 and the outlet tank 3 is shown, but this is not necessary. For example, the vacuum tank may be a heating tank or another vapor deposition tank.

Since the planetary movement mechanism can use a friction wheel instead of the sun gear or the planetary gear, the rolling element is not limited to the gear.

The stopper may be provided on the second substrate holder side. In this case, the pressing member is pressed against the shaft. Further, the pressing member and the shaft of the sun gear may be configured to mechanically engage in a concave and convex manner, and it is not necessary to join only by frictional force as described in the embodiment.

The self-revolving holder can also be configured to rotate in an inclined plane. In this case, the sun gear and the planetary gear are configured by bevel gears, and the rotation center axis of the planetary gear is inclined obliquely.
It is sufficient that at least one rotation and revolution holder is provided, and a plurality of second substrate holders having different numbers, rotation periods and revolution periods may be provided, and these may be selectively used.

(Effects of the Invention) As described above, in the present invention, apart from the substrate holder supported by the suspension arm and rotating together with the arm,
Providing a second substrate holder incorporating a planetary movement mechanism,
An auto-revolution holder is provided on the planetary moving body so that the revolving holder can revolve when the suspension arm rotates. Therefore, according to the apparatus of the present invention, it is possible to perform deposition while simply rotating the substrate holder or to perform deposition while rotating / revolving the rotation / revolution holder simply by selecting the substrate holder to be fed into the vacuum chamber. In a vacuum deposition apparatus of a film formation method, different grades of vapor deposition processing according to a film formation target are realized, and the versatility can be improved.

A mechanism for rotation / revolution is incorporated in the second substrate holder, and the sun ring is fixed non-rotatably with a stopper using the operation when the substrate holder is automatically mounted on the suspension holder, so that continuous film formation is performed. Automatic mounting of the substrate holder to the rotating mechanism, which is indispensable in the vacuum evaporation apparatus of the system, can be performed without any trouble in the second substrate holder. As a result, the rotation state of the substrate holder can be changed without extra work such as opening the vacuum chamber to the atmosphere and replacing the rotation mechanism with the rotation / revolution mechanism, thereby improving the productivity as compared with the conventional apparatus. Was.

[Brief description of the drawings]

1 to 5 show an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 1 is a plan view of a second substrate holder, and FIG. 2 is II- in FIG.
II sectional view, FIG. 3 is a vertical sectional view showing the state where the substrate holder is captured by the rotating mechanism, and FIG. 4 is a longitudinal section equivalent to FIG. 3 showing the state where the first substrate holder is captured. Area view,
FIG. 5 is an overall vertical sectional front view showing the outline of a continuous film formation type vacuum evaporation apparatus. FIG. 6 is an operation explanatory view showing a conventional apparatus. 1. Vapor deposition tank 2. Inlet tank (vacuum tank) 3. Outlet tank (vacuum tank) 6A, 6B. Substrate holder 7. Transport means 9. Rotary mechanism 18. Drive source 21. Arm 24 Stopper 29 Connecting member 30 Frame 31 Planetary gear mechanism (planetary movement mechanism) 32 Self-revolving holder 33 Sun gear (sun ring) 34 Planetary gear (planetary moving body)

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] 1. A vacuum tank is arranged adjacent to a vapor deposition tank, and each tank is provided with a conveying means for feeding and operating a substrate holder on which a group of substrates is mounted. What is claimed is: 1. A vacuum deposition apparatus, comprising: a rotation mechanism for rotating a substrate holder in a suspended state on a wall, wherein the rotation mechanism captures the substrate holder sent by a transport unit and supports the substrate holder in a suspended manner. An arm and a drive source for driving the suspension arm to rotate. The substrate holder rotates by receiving a rotation force of the first substrate holder that rotates together with the suspension arm and a rotation force of the suspension arm. A second substrate holder that revolves while the first substrate and the second substrate holder are provided with a plurality of connecting members that are latched and captured by the suspension arms, respectively, at common positions. The holder is a frame on which the connecting member is mounted. A planetary motion mechanism supported by the frame, and a self-revolving holder that rotates together with the planetary motion body of the planetary motion mechanism.When the frame is suspended by the suspension arm, The stopper that fixedly holds the sun wheel of the planetary movement mechanism so that it can not rotate,
It is provided between the second substrate holder and the non-rotating wall of the rotation mechanism, and is calibrated so as to select and use the first and second substrate holders according to a film formation target. Vacuum deposition system of continuous film formation system.