JP2001291585A - Manufacturing method and manufacturing device of organic el element - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To achieve an improvement in production efficiency by discovering faults which occurred in a manufacturing process early and reducing a process loss after the vapor deposition of organic layer and electrode. SOLUTION: After having passed through vapor deposition processes (c) to (f) to vapor-deposit the organic layer and electrode, a test process (g) to perform a predetermined test to the vapor-deposited organic layer and electrode is equipped, and a sealing process (h) is performed after the test process.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a method and an apparatus for manufacturing an organic electroluminescence device (hereinafter, referred to as an organic EL device).
The present invention relates to a method and an apparatus for manufacturing an organic EL element having a step of performing a predetermined inspection on the organic EL element.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Electroluminescent (EL) elements have been used as various surface light sources such as backlights of liquid crystal displays.
With the development of organic EL devices capable of obtaining emission wavelengths of each color including blue light emission, which has been difficult with devices, utilization for flat panel color displays has been attempted.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory view showing an outline of a basic structure and a manufacturing process of an organic EL element. In the drawing, a substrate 1A having electrodes formed on a surface of a substrate (transparent substrate such as glass) 1 with a transparent electrode 2 formed of an ITO film as an anode is used as a processing material (see FIG. 1A), and this is used as a resistor. It is supplied to a heating vacuum evaporation apparatus, and a hole transport layer 3 made of a phthalocyanine-based material such as CuPc or H ₂ Pc or an aromatic amine-based compound is formed as a first layer (see FIG. 2B). A light emitting layer 4 using a material doped with quinacridone or coumarin is laminated on a matrix such as Alq ₃ or BeBq ₃ (see FIG. 3C), and an electron transport layer 5 mainly composed of Alq ₃ is laminated. Film-formed, hole transport layer 3, light emitting layer 4
Then, an organic layer composed of the electron transport layer 5 is formed (see FIG. 3D). Then, an aluminum electrode 6 is vapor-deposited on the organic layer (see FIG. 4E), and then a protective layer 7 for sealing these vapor-deposited layers is formed (see FIG. 4F). .

FIG. 5 is an explanatory view showing an example of a manufacturing apparatus for manufacturing the above-mentioned organic EL device. This manufacturing apparatus 10 includes an electrode-attached substrate 1 having a transparent electrode formed on the surface of the substrate.
A (see FIG. 4 (a)) is a device for carrying in, cleaning, film formation and carrying out of each layer, and a loading load lock chamber 11, a cleaning chamber 12, and a load chamber 11 connected in series. It has first to fifth film forming chambers 13 to 17 for forming a hole transport layer, a light emitting layer, an electron transport layer, an electrode, and a protective layer, and a load lock chamber 18 for carrying out. The above-described cleaning chamber 12 and the first to fifth film forming chambers 13 to 17 are vacuum vessels provided with a vacuum evacuation system, and communicate with each other via valves 19A to 19G. In each of the above rooms,
A transfer system of a belt type, a robot arm type, or the like is provided for each (not shown). With these transfer systems, the substrate with electrode 1A as a processing material can be transferred without opening each chamber to the atmosphere. I have.

[0005] In such an apparatus 10 for manufacturing an organic EL element, the substrate 1 A with electrodes cleaned ultrasonically in an organic solvent is used.
Is loaded into the cleaning chamber 12 via the loading load lock chamber 11, and the cleaning chamber 12 performs plasma cleaning.
To the fifth film forming chambers 13 to 17 to sequentially form a hole transport layer, a light emitting layer, an electron transport layer, an electrode, and a protective layer in each of the film forming chambers. The organic EL device is to be carried out, so that the organic EL element can be manufactured continuously and consistently in a vacuum.

[0006]

Generally, when an organic EL device is manufactured, the organic layers (a hole transport layer, a light emitting layer, and an electron transport layer) are non-uniformly laminated in a manufacturing process. The organic EL element may have uneven brightness or poor light emission due to some damage to the organic layer when the electrode is formed thereon, or impurities mixed into the electrode itself to be formed. . Therefore,
It is impossible to obtain a product at a yield of 100% with the current manufacturing technology. Therefore, an inspection process for inspecting the luminous characteristics and the like of the product and using only the product that satisfies a desired evaluation standard as a product is performed. It is essential to establish one.

On the other hand, the organic EL device is very sensitive to moisture and oxygen entering from the periphery of the device due to its structure, and is easily affected by the moisture and oxygen. In particular, since the electrode on the electron transport layer has a small work function and is easily oxidized by moisture or oxygen, a non-electron transport region is thereby formed, and a non-light-emitting region (black spot, dark spot) is formed in the light-emitting surface.
May occur. Furthermore, in the organic layer, there is an organic compound which is easily degraded by moisture or oxygen, and the heat generation during light emission further accelerates the deterioration, sometimes deteriorating the light emission characteristics.

Therefore, in the manufacturing method using the above-described conventional manufacturing apparatus, a step of forming an organic layer, forming an electrode thereon, and immediately forming a protective layer for sealing them is provided. In addition, the inspection process for eliminating defective organic EL elements as described above has been performed in the final process of manufacturing after a protective layer is formed and carried out of a load lock chamber.

However, according to the conventional manufacturing method in which an inspection step is provided in the final step of manufacturing as described above, naturally, when a defective product is found, it has already been through many steps and the defective product is found in the middle of the manufacturing process. Thus, a process such as formation of a protective layer is performed on the resulting film, and the production efficiency is poor.

The present invention has been proposed in order to cope with such a situation, and it is an object of the present invention to provide a manufacturing method and a manufacturing apparatus which can detect a defect generated in a manufacturing process at an early stage and have high production efficiency. It is the purpose.

[0011]

To achieve the above object, the present invention provides a vapor deposition step of depositing an organic layer and an electrode on a substrate, and a sealing step of sealing the organic layer and the electrode after the vapor deposition step. And a method of manufacturing an organic EL device comprising the steps of:
After the vapor deposition step, there is provided an inspection step of performing a predetermined inspection on the deposited organic layer and the electrode, and the sealing step is performed after the inspection step.

[0012] Further, as a manufacturing apparatus for carrying out the above manufacturing method, an organic EL having a film forming chamber for depositing an organic layer and an electrode on a substrate and a sealing chamber for sealing the organic layer and the electrode. In the device manufacturing apparatus, an inspection chamber capable of performing an inspection in a vacuum or in a dry atmosphere is provided between the film forming chamber and the sealing chamber, and a predetermined inspection is performed on the organic layer and the electrode. It is characterized by the following.

Further, in the above-described inspection step and the inspection room for performing the inspection step, an inspection relating to the emission characteristics of the organic EL element is performed.

According to the above configuration, after the organic layer and the electrode are formed on the substrate, an inspection step of inspecting the organic layer and the electrode for defects before sealing them is provided. Since a defective product can be found, a subsequent process can be omitted for a defective product, thereby reducing process loss and improving production efficiency. Further, by performing the inspection step performed before the sealing step in a vacuum or a dry atmosphere, it is possible to prevent the organic layer and the electrode from being exposed to moisture and the like during the inspection process and being deteriorated. . In addition, by making the inspection process inspect the light emitting characteristics of the organic EL element, it becomes possible to cope with the production of an organic EL element for a color display.

[0015]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings (the same parts as in the prior art are denoted by the same reference numerals). FIG. 1 is an explanatory view showing an apparatus for manufacturing an organic EL device according to one embodiment of the present invention. This manufacturing apparatus 20 is the same as the conventional apparatus up to the point that it has a load lock chamber 11 for loading, a cleaning chamber 12 and first to fourth film forming chambers 13, 14, 15, and 16. The cleaning chamber 12 is a chamber for cleaning the electrode-attached substrate 1A (see FIG. 4).
The apparatus is provided with a plasma cleaning device (not shown) of a plasma generation type such as a thermionic discharge type or a magnetron discharge type. In front of the cleaning chamber 12, there is provided a load lock chamber 11 for carrying in which is communicated with each other via a valve 19A. The substrate 1A with an electrode is carried into the cleaning chamber 12 through the load lock chamber 11 for carrying in.
The substrate with electrodes can be carried into the cleaning chamber 12 without exposing the substrate 2 to the atmosphere.

A first film forming chamber 13 adjacent to the cleaning chamber 12 via a valve 19B is a chamber for depositing a hole transport layer 3 (see FIG. 4) on the transparent electrode 2 (see FIG. 4). In addition, a vacuum evaporation apparatus of a resistance heating type or the like including an evaporation source for heating and evaporating the evaporation material constituting the hole transport layer 3 is formed. The second film forming chamber 14 adjacent to the first film forming chamber 13 via the valve 19C is a chamber for forming the light emitting layer 4 (see FIG. 4) on the hole transport layer 3.
And a vacuum evaporation apparatus of a resistance heating type or the like having an evaporation source for heating and evaporating the evaporation material constituting the above. The third film forming chamber 15 adjacent to the second film forming chamber 14 via the valve 19D is a chamber for forming the electron transport layer 5 (see FIG. 4) on the light emitting layer 4, and A vacuum evaporation apparatus of a resistance heating type or the like including an evaporation source that heats and evaporates the evaporation material constituting 5 is formed. Further, the third film forming chamber 1
The fourth film forming chamber 16 adjacent to the apparatus 5 via a valve 19E is
This is a chamber for forming an electrode 6 (see FIG. 4) serving as a cathode on the electron transporting layer 5, and is formed with a vacuum evaporation apparatus such as a resistance heating type provided with an evaporation source for evaporating a metal constituting the electrode 6. ing.

In this embodiment, an inspection room 21 is provided adjacent to the fourth film formation room 16 via a valve 19H. The inspection chamber 21 inspects the organic EL element at the stage where the organic layer including the hole transport layer 3, the light emitting layer 4, and the electron transport layer 5 and the electrode 6 are formed, while maintaining the vacuum state, for defects. It is for doing. In particular, a device (not shown) for connecting an inspection power supply to the transparent electrode 2 and the electrode 6 or a measurement device (not shown) for measuring a light emitting state when the inspection power is applied is provided. Is provided. In addition, in the inspection room 21, the load lock chamber 2 for unloading for removing a product evaluated as having a poor inspection result from the production line.
3 are adjacent via a valve 19J.

A sealing chamber 22 adjacent to the inspection chamber 21 via a valve 19K covers the organic layer including the hole transport layer 3, the light emitting layer 4, and the electron transport layer 5 of the organic EL element and the electrode 6. For sealing off from moisture or oxygen, etc., and may be a film forming chamber for depositing a protective layer as in a conventional apparatus, or may be an organic layer and an electrode 6 for another layer. A device for covering with a sealing material may be provided. The sealing chamber 22 is provided with an unloading load lock chamber 18 adjacent via a valve 19L.

According to the manufacturing apparatus 20 of this embodiment, the organic EL element at the stage where the organic layer and the electrode 6 are formed is transported to the inspection room 21 while the surroundings thereof are maintained in a vacuum, and the inspection is performed. In the room, an inspection is performed to determine whether or not a defect has occurred in the previous manufacturing process. Those that are evaluated as defective in the inspection room 21 are excluded from the production line through the load-out load lock chamber 23 adjacent to the valve 19J via the valve 19J. It is sent to the sealing chamber 22 via 19K.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory view showing another embodiment of the present invention. The same parts as those in the above-described embodiment are denoted by the same reference numerals, and redundant description will be omitted. Manufacturing apparatus 3 of this embodiment
0, the load lock chamber 33 for carrying out is adjacent to the fourth film forming chamber 16 via the valve 19M, and the load lock chamber 34 for carrying in is provided facing the load lock chamber 33 for carrying out. Valve 1 adjacent to lock chamber 34
A sealing chamber 22 similar to the above is provided via 9N. Then, an inspection room 31 is formed in which the room is maintained in a dry atmosphere so that the load outlets and the entrance of the load lock chambers 33 and 34 facing each other are provided in the room.

According to the manufacturing apparatus 30 of this embodiment, the fourth
The organic EL element at the stage where the organic layer and the electrode 6 have been formed through the film forming chamber 16 is once taken out of the vacuum chamber and transported into the inspection chamber 31 in which the room is kept in a dry atmosphere. And
In the inspection room 31, the same inspection as that of the above-described inspection room 21 is performed, and only the inspection result having a good inspection result is sent from the loading load lock chamber 34 to the sealing chamber 22.

The organic E is produced by the above-mentioned production apparatuses 20 and 30.
A method of manufacturing the L element will be described with reference to the flow shown in FIG. First, the substrate with electrode 1A, which is a processing material subjected to ultrasonic cleaning in an organic solvent, is carried into the load lock chamber 11 for carrying in (a). Thereafter, the load lock chamber 11 is moved to the cleaning chamber 1.
The pressure is reduced to a pressure lower than 2, and the valve 19A is opened,
The substrate 1A is transferred into the cleaning chamber 12. This prevents impurities in the load lock chamber 11 from flowing into the cleaning chamber 12 when the substrate 1A is transferred. In the cleaning chamber 12, the substrate with electrode 1A is subjected to plasma cleaning (b). After this cleaning step is completed, the valve 19B between the cleaning chamber 12 and the first film forming chamber 13 is opened, the processing material is carried into the first film forming chamber 13, and the valve 19B is closed. Then, the hole transport layer 3 is deposited in the first film forming chamber 13 (c). After the hole transport layer deposition step is completed, the processing material on which a film is formed by opening the valve 19C between the first film forming chamber 13 and the second film forming chamber 14 is carried into the second film forming chamber 14. Then, the valve 19C is closed, and the light emitting layer 4 is deposited in the second film forming chamber 14 (d).
Thereafter, the electron transport layer 5 is formed in the third film forming chamber 15 by the same operation.
(E), an electrode 5 serving as a counter electrode is deposited in the fourth film forming chamber (f).

In the embodiment of the manufacturing apparatus 20 (FIG. 1), the valve 19H is opened, and the organic EL element at the stage where the organic layer and the electrode 6 are deposited is carried into the inspection room 21. In the embodiment of the manufacturing apparatus 30 (FIG. 2), the valve 19M is opened, the organic EL element at the above stage is moved to the load lock chamber 33 for unloading, the valve 19M is closed, and then the load lock chamber 33 is closed. To the inspection room 31
Carry in. Here, in the inspection rooms 21 and 31, the above-described inspection is performed on the organic EL elements that have been subjected to the vapor deposition process so far. If the inspection result is bad, the inspection result is removed from the production line at this stage, and the inspection result is obtained. Only good products are transferred to the next step (g). The non-defective product that has passed the above inspection process is
, Where a predetermined sealing process is performed (h).
Further, if necessary, a cutting step is performed on the material discharged from the sealing chamber 22 through the unloading load lock chamber (i) to obtain a desired product.

According to such a manufacturing method, an inspection process is performed on a manufactured organic EL element before passing through a sealing process, and a subsequent process is performed on a device in which a defect is confirmed at that stage. Can be omitted. Therefore, it is not necessary to perform a subsequent sealing step or the like for a defective product generated in the vapor deposition step, so that a process loss can be reduced and production efficiency can be improved.

[0025]

Since the method and apparatus for manufacturing an organic EL device according to the present invention are configured as described above, defects occurring in the manufacturing process can be found at an early stage, and the process loss after the deposition of the organic layer and the electrode is eliminated. Therefore, production efficiency can be improved.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is an explanatory view showing an organic EL device manufacturing apparatus according to one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory view showing an apparatus for manufacturing an organic EL device according to another embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory view showing a method for manufacturing an organic EL device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory view showing an outline of a basic structure and a manufacturing process of the organic EL element.

FIG. 5 is an explanatory view showing a conventional organic EL element manufacturing apparatus.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Substrate 1A Substrate with an electrode 2 Transparent electrode 3 Hole transport layer 4 Light emitting layer 5 Electron transport layer 6 Electrode 7 Protective layer 10, 20, 30 Manufacturing apparatus 11, 34 Loading load lock room 12 Cleaning room 13 First film formation room 14 2nd film formation room 15 3rd film formation room 16 4th film formation room 17 5th film formation room 18,23,33 Load lock room for carrying out 19A-19H, 19J-19N Valve 21,31 Inspection room 22 Sealing room

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A method for manufacturing an organic EL device, comprising: a vapor deposition step of vapor-depositing an organic layer and an electrode on a substrate; and a sealing step of sealing the organic layer and the electrode after the vapor-deposition step.
A method for manufacturing an organic EL device, comprising: an inspection step of performing a predetermined inspection on an evaporated organic layer and an electrode after the evaporation step; and performing the sealing step after the inspection step. 2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the inspecting step is for inspecting the light emitting characteristics of the organic EL device. 3. An organic EL device manufacturing apparatus comprising: a film forming chamber for depositing an organic layer and an electrode on a substrate; and a sealing chamber for sealing the organic layer and the electrode. An apparatus for manufacturing an organic EL element, wherein an inspection chamber capable of performing inspection in a vacuum or in a dry atmosphere is provided between the stop chamber and a predetermined inspection for the organic layer and the electrode. 4. The apparatus for manufacturing an organic EL device according to claim 3, wherein the inspection room is for inspecting the light emission characteristics of the organic EL device.