JP2000328228A - Vacuum deposition system - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Problem] To provide a vacuum film forming system capable of performing a series of steps from pre-processing such as cleaning of a work to completion of film formation by a vacuum film forming apparatus. Aim. SOLUTION: A vacuum film forming system is constituted by a cleaning means 2, an activating means 3, and a vacuum film forming apparatus 4. Work 7
In the method, a thin film is formed by the vacuum film forming apparatus 4, but as pretreatment, cleaning by the cleaning unit 2 and activation processing by the activation unit 3 are performed. The cleaning means 2 can clean the work 7 in a dry state in the cleaning container 2a which is a closed space. The activation means 3 can activate the work 7 in the activation container 3a which is a closed space. The installation of the work 7 cleaned by the cleaning means 2 on the activation means 3 is performed via a closed space in the interior 11 where the work 7 can be kept in a dry state. The installation of the work 7 activated by the activating means 2 in the vacuum film forming apparatus 4 is performed via a closed space in 12 which can be a vacuum atmosphere.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a vacuum film forming system including a vacuum film forming apparatus for forming a thin film on a work.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, various thin films such as a semiconductor film and a metal film are being formed by using a vacuum film forming apparatus. In this vacuum film forming apparatus, a work is set inside the chamber, and a thin film can be formed on the set work.

There are various types of vacuum film forming apparatuses depending on the method of forming a thin film. A work set in a chamber is subjected to processes such as vapor deposition and ion plating, and the surface of the work is formed on the work. The target thin film is formed.

By the way, when a film is sequentially grown on a work by the vacuum film forming apparatus and a film is formed, if oil or fine dust adheres to the surface of the work, the film is formed into a dense film. Can not do. Therefore, in general, a pre-process such as a work cleaning process is performed prior to film formation by a vacuum film formation apparatus. Then, as a pretreatment, the work is cleaned by, for example, an ultrasonic cleaning device. Then, after such cleaning is performed, a film is formed on the surface of the work by the vacuum film forming apparatus as described above.

[0005]

Here, the cleaning of the workpiece by the ultrasonic cleaning device or the like has been performed using a liquid cleaning agent or the like. Therefore, it is necessary to dry the washed work with a drying device. Further, in the process from the cleaning of the work to the installation of the work in the vacuum film forming apparatus, the transfer of the work between the apparatuses has been performed manually.

[0006] Therefore, the process from the cleaning of the work to the completion of the film formation is a complicated process that requires many devices and manpower.

Therefore, according to the present invention, the process from the above-described processing such as cleaning of a work to the completion of film formation by a vacuum film forming apparatus can be processed as a series of steps.
An object of the present invention is to provide a more compact vacuum film forming system that can prevent the work from getting wet including dew condensation.

[0008]

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the present invention provides a cleaning means capable of cleaning a work in a closed space in a dry state, and installing the cleaned work in a chamber. A vacuum film forming apparatus for forming a thin film on a work, wherein the work cleaned by the cleaning means is placed in a chamber of the vacuum film forming apparatus via a vacuum atmosphere. A film forming system (claim 1).

According to this vacuum film forming system, a thin film is formed on a work by the vacuum film forming apparatus, and the work is cleaned by the above-mentioned cleaning means as a pre-process of the film formation. That is, fine dust and the like adhering to the surface of the work are washed and removed. The cleaning of the work by the cleaning means is performed with the work placed in the closed space in a dry state. Then, the cleaned work is placed in a chamber of the vacuum film forming apparatus through a vacuum atmosphere, and a thin film is formed on the surface thereof.

According to this vacuum film forming system, the work is cleaned by the cleaning means without using a liquid cleaning agent. In addition, the work can be in a dry state, and no dew condensation occurs on the work. This eliminates the need to dry the workpiece after cleaning. Therefore, a drying device or the like for drying the work is not required, and the vacuum film forming system can have a compact configuration.

[0011] Further, since the processing of the work from the cleaning by the cleaning means to the installation in the vacuum film forming apparatus is performed in a closed space, there is no possibility that the work is again dusted after the work is cleaned. Thus, the process from the pre-treatment cleaning process to the end of the film formation can be performed as a series of steps in a closed space, and no manual operation is required.

[0012] Further, the vacuum film forming system according to the present invention is provided with an activating means for activating a work by installing the work in a closed space, and installing the activated work in a chamber to form a thin film on the work. A vacuum film forming apparatus, wherein the work activated by the activating means is installed in a chamber of the vacuum film forming apparatus via a vacuum atmosphere. 2).

According to this vacuum film forming system, a thin film is formed on a work by a vacuum film forming apparatus.
As a pre-process of the film formation, a work activating process by the activating means is performed. The activation of the work by the activation means is performed by setting the work in a closed space.
Then, the activated work is placed in a chamber of the vacuum film forming apparatus via a vacuum atmosphere, and a thin film is formed on the surface thereof.

Also in this vacuum film forming system, processing of the work from activation of the work to installation in the vacuum film forming apparatus is performed in a closed space. Thereby, the process from the activation process, which is the pretreatment, to the end of the film formation can be processed as a series of steps in the closed space,
There is no need for manual work.

[0015] The vacuum film forming system having the activating means is further provided with a washing means capable of washing the work in a closed state in a closed space, and the work cleaned by the washing means is at least a work for drying the work. It can be configured to be installed in the closed space of the activating means via a closed space that can be in a state (claim 3).

Also in this vacuum film forming system, each process from pre-treatment work cleaning to work installation in the vacuum film forming apparatus can be performed as a series of steps in a closed space.

Then, the activation of the cleaned work in the closed space is performed through at least a closed space in which the work can be dried, for example, a closed space in which the work can be dried by setting a vacuum atmosphere. Therefore, when placing the work in the closed space of the activation means, the work can be kept in a dry state.

The activating means may activate the work by irradiating the work with ultraviolet rays. Thus, the work can be activated by a relatively simple method of irradiating light.

Further, the work can be activated by irradiating the work with charged particles (claim 5). As a specific example of activating the work by irradiating the charged particles, there is an activation process called plasma cleaning in which plasma is applied to the work.

Further, the activation of the work by the activating means may be performed in a chamber of the vacuum film forming apparatus. Thereby, without particularly providing a device for performing the activation process on the workpiece,
The work can be activated in the chamber of the vacuum film forming apparatus, and the system can be made more compact.

In particular, in the case where the work is activated by the irradiation of the charged particles (claim 5), when the vacuum film forming apparatus is of a type that generates a group of charged particles in the chamber, the vacuum film forming is performed. Since the functions inherent in the apparatus can be used for activating the work, the system configuration can be made more compact.

Further, the cleaning of the work by the cleaning means can be performed by spraying a cooling blast material having sublimability or evaporability onto the work. Thus, when the cooling blast material is irradiated onto the work, unnecessary foreign substances adhering to the surface of the work are crushed by physical shock of the blast material and a difference in thermal expansion from the base material due to rapid cooling of the foreign substances. And it is peeled off from the base material surface. Further, the foreign matter is blown off by wind pressure due to injection or rapid volume expansion due to sublimation or evaporation of the blast material. In this way, foreign matter on the surface of the work is washed and removed. On the other hand, the cooling blast material sublimates or evaporates due to the collision with the work due to the sublimability or the evaporability, and thus does not hinder the dry state of the work.

Here, a preferred example of the cooling blast material is dry ice. In addition, a sublimable or evaporable solid which has been supercooled into a particle state, such as an argon particle group, can be used. Further, it may be a solid gas or a cooled gas.

Further, the cleaning of the work with the cooling blast material can be performed in a vacuum atmosphere. Thereby, the dry state of the work can be further enhanced.

[0025]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS.

FIG. 1A is a block diagram schematically showing a vacuum film forming system 1 according to one embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 1B is a diagram schematically showing a process for a workpiece in each step of FIG. 1A.

In each processing for the work 7 by the vacuum film forming system 1, a number of works 7 are set and fixed on one dome 6, and the dome 6 on which the works 7 are set is transferred via a transfer conveyor 101. , By sequentially installing them in each device.

The dome 6 is formed on a curved surface having a constant thickness, and the work 7 is fixedly installed at each predetermined position on the curved surface. And the work 7
The film is formed on the inner surface of the dome 6 so that
It is installed on the dome 6. In addition, the work 7 includes various types of film formation targets such as a mirror substrate on which a mirror surface portion of a mirror is formed.

In FIG. 1, reference numeral 2 denotes a cleaning device. The cleaning device 2 cleans and removes oil, fine dust, mold release materials, abrasives, and the like adhering to the surface of the work 7 as pretreatment for forming a film on the work 7 by the vacuum film formation device 4. It is for. That is, in the subsequent film formation on the work 7, the cleaning device 2 performs a cleaning process on the work 7 in order to make the film adhere to the surface of the work 7 more firmly and to form a more dense film. .

The cleaning apparatus 2 is constituted by a blast apparatus for spraying a blast material onto a target to be cleaned for cleaning (hereinafter referred to as "blast cleaning"). Cleaning device 2
Has a cleaning container 2a whose inside is a closed space and in which blast cleaning is performed.

The dome 6 is arranged above the inside of the washing container 2a. Then, inside the cleaning container 2a, the cooling blast material is sprayed from the spray nozzle 8 toward the work 7 on the inner surface side of the dome 6. In the cleaning device 2, dry ice particles are used as a cooling blast material. Then, according to the cleaning device 2, the injected dry ice particles quickly sublimate to carbon dioxide when colliding with the surface of the work 7. Accordingly, the work 7 is not wetted by the liquid cleaning agent as in the case where the work is cleaned by the conventional ultrasonic cleaner, and the work 7 can be easily kept in a dry state.

Further, as the cooling blast material, low-temperature carbon dioxide gas itself may be injected.

Further, in the cleaning apparatus 2, it is preferable that the inside of the cleaning container 2a can be set to a vacuum atmosphere. That is, the cleaning container 2
This is because the drying state inside the cleaning container 2a can be further increased by setting the inside of the cleaning container 2a at a pressure lower than the atmospheric pressure. Accordingly, even if the temperature of the work is lowered by the irradiation of the dry ice particles, dew condensation on the work is prevented. Further, the inside of the cleaning container 2a may be filled with a low-pressure nitrogen gas as the vacuum atmosphere of the cleaning container 2a.

In addition, as long as the work 7 can be kept in a dry state, the inside of the cleaning container 2a may be replaced by a vacuum atmosphere. For example, the injection of the blast particles from the injection nozzle 8 may be performed by dry air. In addition, the injection nozzle 8
Warm air may be supplied to the work 7 in a system different from the spray nozzle 8 while spraying more blast particles.

Next, reference numeral 3 denotes an activation device. The activation device 3 activates the surface of the work 7 as a pretreatment for forming a film on the work 7 by the vacuum film formation device 4. That is, by performing the activation process,
In later film formation on the work 7, a more dense film can be formed. The activation device 3 includes an activation container 3a whose inside is a closed space and in which the activation process is performed. And this activation container 3a
The dome 6 to which the work 7 is fixed is installed on the upper part in the inside.

In the activation device 3, an ultraviolet (UV) irradiation device 9 is provided so that the work 7 on the inner surface side of the dome 6 is irradiated with the ultraviolet light. . The activation device 3 may be a device that activates a work by irradiating ions that are charged particles. For example, the activation device 3 generates plasma in the activation container 3a and transfers ions in the plasma to the work. Irradiation may be used.

In the activation device 3, it is preferable that the inside of the activation container 3a can be made a vacuum atmosphere. Thereby, the dry state inside the activation container 3a can be further increased, and the dry state of the work can be further increased.

In FIG. 1, reference numeral 4 denotes a vacuum film forming apparatus. The vacuum film forming apparatus 4 has a chamber 4a in which a film is formed on a work. Then, the dome 6 is set on the upper part of the chamber 4a, and the set dome 6 is set.
A thin film is formed on the work 7 on the inner surface side of. As the vacuum film forming apparatus 4, various kinds of vacuum film forming apparatuses capable of forming a film on a work, such as an ion plating apparatus and a vacuum evaporation apparatus, can be used. In particular, it is more preferable to use a gasless ion plating apparatus described in, for example, Japanese Patent Publication No. 1-48347 as the vacuum film forming apparatus 4 in the following points. That is, the work 7 is made of a material having low heat resistance, such as plastic, because a denser thin film can be formed on the work and does not cause a significant temperature rise of the work in the process of forming the film. However, there is an advantage that there is no problem.

Each of the cleaning device 2, the activating device 3, and the vacuum film forming device 4 is provided with an openable and closable mechanism in each container or chamber so that the dome 6 can be received or sent out. I have. Then, the dome 6 can be transferred between the above devices through the opening / closing mechanism.

When the film formation on the work 7 by the vacuum film forming apparatus 4 is completed, the dome 6 is carried out of the chamber 4a, but each work 7 set in the dome 6 is removed from the dome 6 and carried out. It is. On the other hand, the dome 6 is returned to the pre-processing step again, on which the work 7 is set, and transported between the above-described devices.

In FIG. 1, reference numeral 11 denotes a connecting portion provided between the cleaning device 2 and the activating device 3, and reference numeral 12 denotes a connecting portion provided between the activating device 3 and the vacuum film forming device 4. It is a connection part. The connection portions 11 and 12 are configured so that the inside thereof can be evacuated to a vacuum atmosphere, and a significant pressure difference is generated between the chamber 4a, the cleaning container 2a, and the activation container 3a of the vacuum film forming apparatus. That can be prevented. In addition, about the connection part 11, the activation container 3
If the inside of a is not in a vacuum atmosphere, it is sufficient that at least the inside of a is in a dry state.

In the vacuum film forming system shown in FIG. 1, when the cleaning process of the work 7 by the cleaning device 2 is completed, the dome 6 is automatically transferred to the activation device 3 by the transfer conveyor 101. It has become. When the activation process of the work by the activation device 3 is completed, the dome 6 is automatically transferred to the vacuum film forming device 4 by the transfer conveyor 101.

Next, another embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG.

FIG. 2 shows a vacuum film forming system 15 according to another embodiment of the present invention.

The vacuum film forming system 15 includes the cleaning device 2 and the vacuum film forming device 4. That is, the vacuum film forming system 15 does not include the activation device 3 provided in the vacuum film forming system 1. In the quality of the thin film to be formed on the work 7, it may be sufficient to clean the work without activating the work. In this case, since the activation device 3 is not required, the cleaning device 2 and the vacuum film forming device 4 can make the system more compact.

Further, still another embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG.

FIG. 3 shows a vacuum film forming system 16 which is still another embodiment of the present invention. The vacuum film forming system 16 includes the activating device 3 and the vacuum film forming device 4. The vacuum film forming system 16 does not include the cleaning device 2. Depending on the workpiece, it is not necessary to perform a cleaning process, but there are cases where an activation process is desired. In such a case, the activation device 3 and the vacuum film forming device 4 can make the system more compact.

In the above description, the example in which the activation process of the work is performed is described with the example in which the vacuum film forming apparatus and the activating device are provided separately, but the activation is performed in the chamber of the vacuum film forming apparatus. Activating means may be provided. That is, an ultraviolet irradiation device may be provided in the chamber of the vacuum film forming apparatus, and the work may be irradiated with ultraviolet light to activate the film before forming the film. Also, when the vacuum film forming apparatus is an apparatus capable of generating ions in a chamber like an ion plating apparatus, a work is set in the chamber and the ions are irradiated before performing the original film forming. It may be activated. As described above, when the activating means is incorporated in the chamber of the vacuum film forming apparatus or the activation processing is performed using the function inherent in the vacuum film forming apparatus, the vacuum film forming system has a more compact configuration. be able to.

[0049]

As described above, the vacuum film forming system of the present invention is a series of steps in a closed space from pretreatment such as cleaning of a workpiece to completion of film formation by a vacuum film forming apparatus. The processing can be performed, and there is an effect that no manual operation is required. Further, in cleaning the work, since the work can be kept in a dry state, it is possible to prevent the work from being wet including dew condensation, so that a drying device can be eliminated. As described above, an effect that the vacuum film forming system can be made more compact can be obtained.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1A is a diagram showing one embodiment of a vacuum film forming system. FIG. 3B is a diagram schematically illustrating a process performed by each device of the vacuum film forming system.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing another embodiment of the vacuum film forming system.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing still another embodiment of the vacuum film forming system.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Vacuum film-forming system 2 Cleaning device (blast device) 2a Cleaning container 3 Activator 3a Activation container 4 Vacuum film-forming device 4a Chamber 6 Dome 7 Work 8 Injection nozzle 9 Ultraviolet irradiation device 11, 12 Connection part 15 Vacuum film-forming System 16 Vacuum deposition system 101 Transport conveyor

 ──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continuing from the front page (72) Inventor Yasuhiro Koizumi 6-107 Takino-cho, Nishinomiya-shi, Hyogo Inside Shin-Meiwa Industry Development Center (72) Inventor Asako Yamaguchi 6-107 Takino-cho, Nishinomiya-shi, Hyogo No. Shinmeiwa Industrial Co., Ltd. Development Center (72) Inventor Shiro Takigawa No. 6 107 Takino-cho, Nishinomiya City, Hyogo Prefecture Shinmeiwa Industry Co., Ltd. Development Center F-term (reference) 4K029 FA04 FA05 FA06 FA06 KA09

Claims (8)

[Claims] 1. A cleaning means for cleaning a work in a closed state in a dry state in a closed space, and a vacuum film forming apparatus for installing the cleaned work in a chamber and forming a thin film on the work. A vacuum film forming system, wherein the work cleaned by the cleaning means is placed in a chamber of the vacuum film forming apparatus via a vacuum atmosphere. 2. An activating means for activating a work by placing the work in a closed space, and a vacuum film forming apparatus for placing the activated work in a chamber and forming a thin film on the work. A vacuum film forming system, wherein the work activated by the activating means is installed in a chamber of the vacuum film forming apparatus via a vacuum atmosphere. 3. The cleaning device according to claim 1, further comprising a washing unit configured to wash the work in a dry state in the closed space, wherein the work cleaned by the washing unit is activated through at least a closed space in which the work can be dried. The vacuum film forming system according to claim 2, wherein the vacuum film forming system is installed in a closed space. 4. The vacuum film forming system according to claim 2, wherein said activating means activates the work by irradiating the work with ultraviolet rays. 5. The apparatus according to claim 2, wherein said activation means activates the work by irradiating the work with charged particles.
Or the vacuum film forming system according to 3. 6. The vacuum film forming system according to claim 4, wherein the activation of the workpiece by the activating means is performed in a chamber of the vacuum film forming apparatus. 7. The cleaning of the work by the cleaning means, wherein a cooling blast material having a sublimation property or an evaporating property is jetted to the work. 3. The vacuum film forming system according to 1. 8. The cleaning of the work with the cooling blast material is performed in a vacuum atmosphere.
3. The vacuum film forming system according to 1.