KR20040007812A - Apparatus and Method for evaporation - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention uses a single deposition source to uniformly form a deposition film, but the deposition rate is high, there is no or little deposited waste, does not change the characteristics of the deposit, does not deepen the shadow phenomenon, and also in-line type equipment It is also an object to provide a suitable deposition apparatus and deposition method.

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention is:

A substrate holder for supporting a substrate;

A discharge means having a discharge surface facing the lower surface of the substrate and having a discharge surface having at least two discharge holes formed therein and a passage formed therein to interconnect the discharge holes;

A deposition source for evaporating the deposit; And

And a connecting means connecting the evaporation source and the emissive means and guiding the evaporated material evaporated inside the evaporation source into a passage of the emissive means.

Description

Evaporation apparatus and deposition method {Apparatus and Method for evaporation}

The present invention relates to a deposition apparatus and a deposition method, and more particularly to a deposition apparatus and a deposition method for forming a thin film on a substrate.

Although the deposition apparatus and the deposition method are used in various industries, the following description will focus on the deposition apparatus and deposition method for uniformly forming a thin film of an EL (Electro-Luminescent) device.

EL devices are attracting attention as next-generation display devices because they have the advantages of wide viewing angle, excellent contrast, and fast response speed.

The EL element is classified into an inorganic EL element and an organic EL element according to the material forming the emitter layer. The organic EL element has excellent luminance, driving voltage, and response speed characteristics and is capable of multicoloring as compared with the inorganic EL element. It has advantages

In general organic EL devices, an anode layer having a predetermined pattern is formed on a substrate, and a hole transport layer, a light emitting layer, and an electron transport layer are sequentially formed on the anode layer, and the upper surface of the electron transport layer is perpendicular to the anode layer. The cathode layer of a predetermined pattern is formed. Here, the hole transport layer, the light emitting layer and the electron transport layer are organic thin films made of an organic compound.

In fabricating such an organic EL device, various thin film layers such as an anode, a cathode, a hole transporting layer, an electron transporting layer, and an organic light emitting layer should be formed on the substrate as organic materials, which are usually formed by a vacuum deposition method.

The vacuum deposition method is generally accomplished by releasing deposits evaporated from a deposition source toward a substrate mounted in a vacuum chamber.

The organic deposit forming the thin film of the organic EL device is evaporated in a temperature range of about 250 to 500 ° C. at a vacuum degree of 10 E-6 to 10 E-7 torr. On the other hand, the electrode material is generally evaporated at a high temperature compared with the organic material, the evaporation temperature varies depending on the type of material. Most commonly used magnesium (Mg) evaporates at 500 to 600 ° C. and silver (Ag) at 1000 ° C. or higher. In addition, aluminum (Al) used as an electrode material evaporates around 1000 ° C, and lithium (Li) evaporates at about 300 ° C. However, the deposit is not limited to the above materials, and indium (In), tin (Sn) and the like are also used as the deposit.

An important issue in depositing such organic materials on a substrate is that the thickness of the film deposited throughout the substrate must be uniform. Therefore, various efforts have been made to optimize the uniformity of the thin film deposited on the substrate.

Commonly used as a method for increasing the uniformity of the deposited film is a method of maximizing the distance between the deposition source and the substrate or by rotating the substrate as shown in FIG. 2. However, the method of maximizing the distance between the substrate and the deposition source may improve the uniformity of the film, but the deposition rate may be lowered, the properties of the vaporized deposit may be altered, and a larger facility is required. In addition, in the method of depositing while rotating the substrate 1 shown in FIG. 2, the density of deposits deposited on the substrate is not uniform according to the incidence angle of the deposition source 2 and a specific point on the substrate 1, and the substrate In order to deposit a mask in close proximity to the substrate in order to deposit a predetermined pattern, the shadow-effect caused by the distance between the mask and the deposition surface of the substrate tends to be more serious, and The disadvantage is that it is not suitable for in-line equipment. On the other hand, there is also a deposition apparatus and deposition method for solving the above problems by using two or more deposition sources, not only is not easy to properly control the two deposition sources, the above problems are not sufficiently solved.

An object of the present invention for solving the above problems is to uniformly form a deposition film using a single deposition source, while the deposition rate is high or no deposit is wasted, does not change the properties of the deposit, and does not deepen the shadow phenomenon In addition, the present invention also provides an appropriate deposition apparatus and deposition method for in-line type equipment.

1 is a side view showing a conventional vapor deposition apparatus,

2 is a perspective view showing a deposition apparatus according to the present invention;

3 is a cross-sectional view taken along line III-III of FIG. 2,

4 is a cross-sectional view taken along line IV-IV of FIG. 2.

Explanation of symbols on the main parts of the drawings

1: Substrate 10: Deposition Source

16: heater 17: temperature measuring means

19: deposit 20: release means

21: discharge surface 22: discharge port

23: passage 30: connecting means

H: Deposition interval Φ: Tilt angle

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention is:

A substrate holder for supporting a substrate;

A discharge means having a discharge surface facing the lower surface of the substrate and having a discharge surface having at least two discharge holes formed therein and a passage formed therein to interconnect the discharge holes;

A deposition source for evaporating the deposit; And

And a connecting means connecting the evaporation source and the emissive means and guiding the evaporated material evaporated inside the evaporation source into a passage of the emissive means.

The connecting means may include an inclination portion to enable the discharge means to be inclined with respect to the deposition source, and the deposition apparatus may further include an angle adjusting means for adjusting an angle of the emission means with respect to the deposition source. Do.

In addition, the discharge means is preferably further provided with a heater for preventing deposits from the deposition source to be deposited in the discharge port and the passage.

In addition, the discharge surface is preferably provided with discharge holes formed in a row at regular intervals from each other.

In addition, the deposition apparatus preferably further includes a substrate moving means for moving the substrate in parallel with the emission surface while maintaining a distance between the lower surface of the substrate and the emission surface.

In addition, the deposition apparatus preferably further comprises a discharge means moving means for moving the discharge means in parallel to the substrate while maintaining the distance between the lower surface of the substrate and the discharge surface.

Furthermore, in order to achieve the above object, the present invention is:

Aligning the substrate with the discharging means having a discharging surface facing the lower surface of the substrate and having a discharge surface having at least two discharge openings formed therein and a passage formed therein for interconnecting the discharge openings;

An evaporation step of evaporating the deposit in the deposition source;

A discharge step in which the evaporated deposit is discharged through an interior of a connecting means connecting the evaporation source and the discharge means, a passage of the discharge means, and a discharge port of the discharge means; And

And depositing the deposited deposit on the bottom surface of the substrate.

The alignment step preferably includes a tilting step of tilting the substrate at an angle of 5 ° to 20 ° with respect to a vertical line, more specifically at an angle of 7 °.

And the alignment step comprises a discharging means moving step of moving the discharging means in parallel with the substrate while maintaining a distance between the lower surface of the substrate and the discharging surface.

In addition, the alignment step is preferably provided with a substrate movement step for moving the substrate in parallel with the emission surface while maintaining the distance between the lower surface of the substrate and the emission surface.

Next, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. 2 shows a deposition apparatus of an embodiment according to the present invention, FIG. 3 shows a cross section of a discharging means 20 which is one component of the deposition apparatus, and FIG. 4 shows one component of the deposition apparatus. A cross section of phosphorus evaporation source 10 is shown.

The deposition apparatus is installed in a vacuum chamber (not shown). The deposition apparatus

A substrate holder (not shown) for supporting a substrate, a discharging means 20, a deposition source 10, and a connecting means 30 are provided.

The substrate holder functions to support the substrate during deposition, and in particular, it is preferable to support the periphery of the substrate while appropriately pulling the substrate to minimize the deflection of the substrate. In addition, the substrate holder may have a function of selecting and picking only one of the stacked substrates in addition to the function of supporting the substrate.

In particular, the discharge means 20 shown in detail in FIG. 3 has a discharge surface 22 facing the lower surface of the substrate and having discharge holes 22 formed therein for discharging deposits. A case 25 having a passageway 23 interconnecting the shells. The deposition interval H, which is a gap between the deposition surface and the substrate, is determined according to the type of deposit, the size and spacing of the discharge port, the release rate of the deposit, and other equipment conditions.

It is preferable that the discharge holes 22 are formed in rows at regular intervals from each other on the discharge surface 21. Meanwhile, as shown in FIG. 3, the discharge means 20 preferably further includes a heater 24 for heating the deposit discharged to the discharge port 22 via the passage 23. The deposit supplied from (10) is to be excessively cooled before being released to the outside by the discharge port is deposited on the inner surface of the discharge port 22 and the passage 23, thereby preventing the deposit is wasted. The heater 24 may be a heater in which the outer surface of the case is wound with a hot wire, or may be a plate-shaped heater having a predetermined dimension. In addition, in the case of a wound heater, in addition to the form wound on the outer surface of the case 25 as shown in FIG. 3, the heater may be installed inside the wall or the passage 23 constituting the case. In order to fulfill the above functions, the heater 24 is preferably heated to a temperature slightly higher (for example, about 10 ° C) than the heater 16 of the deposition source described later.

In particular, the deposition source 10 shown in detail in FIG. 4 is not significantly different from a conventional deposition source. Specifically, a predetermined container 11, a deposit 19 contained in the container, a heater for evaporating the deposit ( 16) and temperature measuring means 17 for measuring the temperature of the deposit upon heating the deposit by the heater. As the temperature measuring means 17, a thermo-couple is generally used. The heater 16 of the evaporation source may also be wound outside the container 11 like the heater 24 of the discharge means, or may be installed inside the wall constituting the container.

In the present embodiment, the connecting means 30 is a discharge means connecting portion 31 is connected to the passage 23 of the discharge means, the deposition source connection portion 32 is connected to the deposition source 10, and the discharge means connection portion And an inclined portion 33 which connects the 31 and the evaporation source connecting portion 32 and can incline them at an arbitrary angle. The deposition apparatus having the connecting means having the inclined portion 33 as described above, further comprising an angle adjusting means (not shown) that can adjust the angle of the discharge means 20 with respect to the deposition source 10. Preferably, the angle adjusting means should be capable of adjusting the angle while supporting the discharge means. The angle adjusting means preferably includes an actuator rotatably connected to one surface (particularly the lower surface) of the discharge means by a link, and the actuator may adopt any conventional actuator such as a ball-screw type actuator, a hydraulic actuator, or the like. Can be. Also, as shown in FIG. 2, a hinge 40 is preferably provided between the discharging means 20 and the deposition source 10. However, the hinge is not required if the angle adjusting means can sufficiently support the discharging means. It may not. Tilting the discharging means 20 is for arranging the discharging means in parallel with the substrate 1, and inclining the substrate 1 is inferior of the substrate (the deflection of the substrate is particularly inaccurate in depositing in the pattern of the mask). This should be minimized as it will cause deposition of the pattern. In order to minimize the deflection of the substrate, it is preferable to support the substrate vertically, but there are problems in the construction of the deposition apparatus including the substrate holder. Therefore, in this embodiment, the inclination angle Φ with respect to the vertical line of the substrate 1 and the discharge means 20 is set at an angle of 5 ° to 20 °, more specifically, about 7 °.

Meanwhile, in the present embodiment, the discharging means is provided with the inclined portion 33. However, after a specific working condition is determined and the optimal angle is determined, the discharging means has no inclined portion, that is, a fixed inclined connection means. In the case of adopting the fixed connection means, the connection means may be formed integrally with the discharge means 20 or the deposition source 10.

Further, the deposition apparatus may include substrate moving means (not shown) for moving the substrate in parallel with the emission surface while maintaining a distance between the lower surface of the substrate and the emission surface, or a gap between the lower surface of the substrate and the emission surface. It is preferable to further include a discharge means moving means (not shown) for moving the discharge means in parallel with the substrate while maintaining the same. This is necessary when the emitting surface 21 cannot deposit the front surface of the substrate all at once, as shown in FIG. When the substrate is moved, it is preferable to configure the substrate moving means to move the substrate holder. When moving the emitting means, it is preferable that the emitting means moving means moves the evaporation means and the deposition source connected thereto. . Since the substrate moving means and the discharging means moving means can form a deposition film uniformly on the substrate by performing a linear motion in parallel with the substrate, it is easy to construct an in-line facility.

Specific operation of the deposition apparatus will be described together with the following deposition method.

The deposition method according to the present invention includes an alignment step, an evaporation step, a discharge step, and a deposition step.

The alignment step is to align the emission means 20 and the substrate 1, and when the mask is placed in front of the substrate 1, the mask is also aligned. The alignment step may include selecting and fixing only one substrate of the stacked substrates 1 to the substrate holder, and moving the substrate holder to face the emitting means 20. When aligning the substrate, it is desirable to make the inclination angle Φ be an angle of 5 ° to 20 °, more specifically, 7 °, which deflects the deflection of the substrate 1 which intensifies uneven deposition or shadowing. It is to minimize. Although it is preferable to set the inclination angle to 0 ° C., this is difficult on the equipment in the step of selecting and fixing only one substrate among the stacked substrates to the substrate holder. The deposition interval H, which is the distance between the substrate 1 and the emitting surface 21 of the emitting means 20, is determined according to the type of deposit, the size and spacing of the ejection openings, the rate of release of the deposit, and other equipment conditions. In the deposition method using an in-line deposition apparatus, it is possible to deposit a series of substrate holders supporting the substrate 1 while passing heat onto the emission surface 21 of the emission means. In this case, in this alignment step, the discharging means 20 is moved in parallel with the substrate 1 while keeping the distance between the lower surface of the substrate 1 and the emission surface 21 at the deposition interval H. Or a substrate moving step of moving the substrate in parallel with the emission surface while maintaining a distance between the lower surface of the substrate 1 and the emission surface 21.

The evaporation step is a step of evaporating the deposit 19 in the deposition source 10, and heating the deposit contained in the container 11 to a predetermined temperature with the heater 16. In controlling evaporation of the deposit, it is important to control the temperature thereof. Therefore, a temperature measuring means 17 is generally provided at the center of the container to control the temperature of the deposit. The vaporized deposits here move through the connecting means 30 to the passageway 23 of the discharge means. On the other hand, the connecting means 30 may be capable of tilting.

The discharging step is a step of discharging the deposit moved to the passage 23 of the discharging means toward the lower surface of the substrate through the discharging opening 22. Since the deposit moved to the passage 23 is deposited around the passage or the discharge port when the temperature drops, it is preferable to sufficiently heat the passage as the heater 24.

The deposition step is a step in which the deposit released through the discharge port 22 is deposited on the lower surface of the substrate. Hot deposits are deposited by contacting the lower surface of the cold substrate.

Although the present invention has been described with reference to one embodiment shown in the drawings, this is merely exemplary, and those skilled in the art will understand that various modifications and equivalent other embodiments are possible therefrom. Therefore, the true technical protection scope of the present invention will be defined by the technical spirit of the appended claims.

According to the present invention, the deposition film is uniformly formed using one deposition source, but the deposition rate is high, there is no or little of the deposited waste, does not change the properties of the deposit, does not increase the shadow phenomenon, and also in-line form Appropriate deposition apparatus and deposition method are also provided.

Claims (11)

A substrate holder for supporting a substrate; A discharge means having a discharge surface facing the lower surface of the substrate and having a discharge surface having at least two discharge holes formed therein and a passage formed therein to interconnect the discharge holes; A deposition source for evaporating the deposit; And Connecting means for connecting the evaporation source and the emissive means, and for guiding the evaporated material evaporated in the evaporation source into a passage of the emissive means. The method of claim 1, The connecting means has an inclined portion which enables the discharge means to be inclined with respect to the deposition source, The deposition apparatus further comprises an angle adjusting means for adjusting the angle of the discharge means with respect to the deposition source. The method according to claim 1 or 2, And the discharge means further comprises a heater for preventing deposits from the deposition source from being deposited in the discharge port and the passage. The method according to claim 1 or 2, The emission surface is characterized in that the deposition apparatus having a discharge port formed in a row at regular intervals from each other. The method according to claim 1 or 2, And the deposition apparatus further comprises substrate moving means for moving the substrate in parallel with the emission surface while maintaining a distance between the lower surface of the substrate and the emission surface. The method according to claim 1 or 2, The vapor deposition apparatus further comprises a discharging means moving means for moving the discharging means in parallel with the substrate while maintaining a distance between the lower surface of the substrate and the discharging surface. Aligning the substrate with the discharging means having a discharging surface facing the lower surface of the substrate and having a discharge surface having at least two discharge openings formed therein and a passage formed therein for interconnecting the discharge openings; An evaporation step of evaporating the deposit in the deposition source; A discharge step in which the evaporated deposit is discharged through an interior of a connecting means connecting the evaporation source and the discharge means, a passage of the discharge means, and a discharge port of the discharge means; And And depositing the deposited deposit on the bottom surface of the substrate. The method of claim 7, wherein And the alignment step includes a tilting step of tilting the substrate at an angle of 5 ° to 20 ° with respect to the vertical line. The method of claim 8, And the tilting step is a step of tilting the substrate at an angle of 7 ° with respect to the vertical line. The method according to any one of claims 7 to 9, And the alignment step comprises a discharging means moving step of moving the discharging means in parallel with the substrate while maintaining a distance between the lower surface of the substrate and the discharging surface. The method according to any one of claims 7 to 9, And the aligning step includes a substrate moving step of moving the substrate in parallel with the emitting surface while maintaining a distance between the lower surface of the substrate and the emitting surface.