JP2012170955A - Pattern forming method - Google Patents

Abstract

In a pattern formation method for forming a predetermined pattern on a film to be processed by irradiating the film to be processed such as a transparent conductive film formed on a substrate with a laser, a film to be processed generated by laser irradiation is obtained. Provided is a pattern forming method capable of forming a film to be processed having a predetermined pattern without adhesion of unnecessary substances such as burrs and melts.
In a pattern forming method of forming a predetermined pattern 5 on a transparent conductive film 2 by irradiating the transparent conductive film 2 formed on the substrate 1 with a laser, the upper surface of the transparent conductive film 2 is covered. A thin film-like sacrificial layer 4 is formed, and the transparent conductive film 2 is irradiated with laser through the sacrificial layer 4, and then is generated by laser irradiation using hot phosphoric acid as an etchant and is formed on the upper surface of the sacrificial layer 4. A wet etching process is performed to remove unnecessary substances 3 such as burrs and melts of the attached transparent conductive film 2 and sacrificial layer 4 together with the sacrificial layer 4.
[Selection] Figure 1

Description

  In the process of forming a device such as a thin-film solar battery panel or an electrode film of electronic paper, the present invention forms a predetermined pattern on the processed film by irradiating the processed film formed on the substrate with a laser. On how to do.

  Conventionally, in this type of pattern formation method, for example, a film to be processed formed on a substrate in the production of a thin film solar cell panel is directly irradiated with a laser by a laser scribing method. A predetermined pattern is formed. (For example, see paragraph number [0007] of Patent Document 1).

JP 2010-87041 A

  FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram showing a conventional pattern forming method.

  In this pattern formation method, as shown in FIG. 2 (a), first, as a lower electrode film, for example, a ZnO film or ITO film is formed on the substrate 1 by vapor deposition such as CVD. A transparent conductive film 2 is formed. Next, as shown in FIG. 2B, laser light is directly emitted to the transparent conductive film 2 from a laser light source (not shown), and the portion of the transparent conductive film 2 irradiated with the laser light is removed. Thus (laser scribing method), a predetermined pattern 5 is formed on the transparent conductive film 2 as shown in FIG. Thereafter, a semiconductor film and a conductive film as an upper electrode are sequentially stacked on the transparent conductive film 2. In this way, an integrated thin film solar cell panel is formed.

  In this conventional pattern forming method using the laser scribing method, as shown in FIG. 2 (b), the burrs or melted material 3 of the transparent conductive film 2 is generated during the irradiation of the laser beam, and FIG. As shown in the figure, such an unnecessary material 3 adheres to the upper surface of the transparent conductive film 2 along with the pattern formation. Once attached, it is difficult to remove only the unnecessary material 3 from the upper surface of the transparent conductive film 2, and the device characteristics are obtained when a semiconductor film is stacked on the transparent conductive film 2 with the unnecessary material 3 still attached. Defects such as deterioration will occur.

  The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and forms a predetermined pattern on a film to be processed by irradiating the film to be processed such as a transparent conductive film formed on the substrate with a laser. The present invention provides a pattern forming method capable of forming a film to be processed having a predetermined pattern without adhesion of unnecessary materials such as burrs and melts of the film to be processed generated by laser irradiation. Objective.

  The invention according to claim 1 is a pattern forming method for forming a predetermined pattern on a film to be processed by performing laser irradiation on the film to be processed formed on a substrate. A thin sacrificial layer covering the upper surface of the film is formed, and the film to be processed is irradiated with laser through the sacrificial layer, and then the sacrificial layer is generated by the laser irradiation using a predetermined etching solution. A wet etching process is performed to remove unnecessary parts of the film to be processed and the sacrificial layer attached to the upper surface of the layer together with the sacrificial layer.

  The invention according to claim 2 is the pattern forming method according to claim 1, wherein the sacrificial layer is a silicon nitride film.

  The invention according to claim 3 is the pattern forming method according to claim 1, wherein the etching solution is hot phosphoric acid.

  In the pattern forming method according to the first to third aspects of the present invention, burrs, melts, etc. of the film to be processed that are inevitably generated by laser irradiation for pattern formation and adhere to the upper surface of the film to be processed are unnecessary. After positively attaching the object to the upper surface of the thin film-like sacrificial layer formed so as to cover the upper surface of the film to be processed, by selectively etching away only the sacrificial layer to which the unnecessary material has adhered, It is possible to form a conductive film to be processed having a predetermined pattern without adhesion of unnecessary materials that cause problems such as deterioration of device characteristics.

It is a figure which shows typically the pattern formation method which concerns on embodiment of this invention. It is a figure which shows the conventional pattern formation method typically.

  Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

  FIG. 1 schematically shows a pattern forming method according to an embodiment of the present invention.

  In this pattern formation method, in the production of an integrated thin film solar cell panel, a transparent conductive film 2 such as a ZnO film or an ITO film is first formed on the substrate 1 as a lower electrode film by a vapor deposition method such as CVD, as in the prior art. After that, as shown in FIG. 1A, a thin sacrificial layer 4 made of, for example, a silicon nitride film is formed by vapor deposition such as CVD or sputtering so as to cover the upper surface of the transparent conductive film 2. Form a film. The film thickness of the thin sacrificial layer 4 is appropriately set depending on the intensity of emitted laser light (described later). Next, as shown in FIG. 1B, laser light is emitted from a laser light source (not shown) to the transparent conductive film 2 through the sacrifice layer 4, and the laser of the sacrifice layer 4 and the transparent conductive film 2 is emitted. By removing the portion irradiated with light (laser scribing method), a predetermined pattern 5 is formed on the sacrificial layer 4 and the transparent conductive film 2 as shown in FIG. When this laser light is irradiated, unwanted matter 3 such as burrs or melts of the transparent conductive film 2 and the sacrificial layer 4 is generated, and on the upper surface of the sacrificial layer 4 while forming the pattern 5 as shown in FIG. Adhere to.

  Thereafter, only the sacrificial layer 4 with the unwanted material 3 attached thereto is removed by etching using an etching solution that selectively removes only the sacrificial layer 4, for example, hot phosphoric acid, by a known wet etching method. As a result, as shown in FIG. 1D, a transparent conductive film having no predetermined object 3 and having a predetermined pattern 5 is formed on the substrate 1.

  Thereafter, a semiconductor film and a conductive film as an upper electrode are sequentially laminated on the transparent conductive film 2 to form an integrated thin film solar cell panel.

  As described above, in the present embodiment, the transparent conductive film burrs and unnecessary materials 3 such as a melt, which are inevitably generated by the laser irradiation for forming the pattern 5 and adhere to the upper surface of the transparent conductive film 2, are removed. After positively adhering to the upper surface of the thin-film sacrificial layer 4 formed so as to cover the upper surface of 2, only the sacrificial layer 4 to which the unnecessary material 3 is adhered is selectively removed by etching. Thus, it is possible to obtain the transparent conductive film 2 that is free from the adhesion of the unwanted material 3 that causes problems such as deterioration of the film and that has the predetermined pattern 5 formed thereon.

  In the above embodiment, the transparent conductive film 2 as the upper electrode film formed on the substrate 1 has been described as the film to be processed on which the pattern 5 is formed by laser irradiation. The present invention is not limited and can be applied to other films, for example, a semiconductor film as a film to be processed. The present invention can also be applied when a predetermined pattern is formed on a film to be processed.

  In the above embodiment, the case where a silicon nitride film is applied as the thin sacrificial layer 4 formed on the upper surface of the film to be processed has been described. However, the present invention is not limited to this and other components are used. Alternatively, the thin film may be used as the sacrificial layer 4.

  Further, the etchant for selectively removing the thin sacrificial layer 4 by etching is not limited to hot phosphoric acid, and is appropriately selected and used depending on the type of the thin sacrificial layer 4 to be removed.

1 Substrate 2 Transparent conductive film (film to be processed)
3 Unnecessary items 4 Sacrificial layer 5 Pattern

Claims (3)

In a pattern forming method for forming a predetermined pattern on a film to be processed by irradiating the film to be processed formed on the substrate with a laser,
Forming a thin film-like sacrificial layer covering the upper surface of the processed film on the processed film;
Laser irradiation is performed on the film to be processed through the sacrificial layer,
Thereafter, using a predetermined etching solution, a wet etching process is performed to remove together with the sacrificial layer the processed film and the sacrificial layer that are generated by the laser irradiation and adhere to the upper surface of the sacrificial layer. A pattern forming method.   2. The pattern forming method according to claim 1, wherein the sacrificial layer is a silicon nitride film.   2. The pattern forming method according to claim 1, wherein the etching solution is hot phosphoric acid.

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