CN113471393A

CN113471393A - Film forming apparatus, film forming method, and method for manufacturing electronic device

Info

Publication number: CN113471393A
Application number: CN202110347231.XA
Authority: CN
Inventors: 岩崎达哉; 安川英宏; 锅岛健; 松本行生; 绪方俊宏; 渡部新; 菅原洋纪
Original assignee: Canon Tokki Corp
Current assignee: Canon Tokki Corp
Priority date: 2020-03-31
Filing date: 2021-03-31
Publication date: 2021-10-01
Anticipated expiration: 2041-03-31
Also published as: KR20210122113A; KR102617764B1; KR102527120B1; KR20230059770A; CN113471393B

Abstract

The invention provides a film forming apparatus, a film forming method, and a method for manufacturing an electronic device. Provided is a technique for realizing highly accurate film thickness control and high productivity in a film forming apparatus having a structure in which a plurality of cluster type units are connected. The film forming apparatus includes: a first unit of a cluster type having a first film forming chamber for forming a first layer on a substrate; a cluster-type second unit having a second film forming chamber for forming a second layer in a manner to overlap the first layer; a connection chamber disposed between the first unit and the second unit and connecting adjacent cluster type units; a film thickness measuring section at least partially disposed in a passage chamber included in the connection chamber and measuring a film thickness of a film formed on the substrate accommodated in the passage chamber; and a control unit for controlling at least one of the film forming conditions in the first film forming chamber and the film forming conditions in the second film forming chamber based on the film thickness measured by the film thickness measuring unit.

Description

Film forming apparatus, film forming method, and method for manufacturing electronic device

Technical Field

The invention relates to a film forming apparatus, a film forming method, and a method for manufacturing an electronic device.

Background

In recent years, organic EL display devices (organic EL displays) have attracted attention as flat panel display devices. Organic EL display devices are self-emitting displays, have excellent characteristics such as response speed, viewing angle, and reduction in thickness compared to liquid crystal displays, and are becoming popular in place of existing liquid crystal panel displays in various portable terminals including monitors, televisions, and smartphones. Further, the application field thereof is also expanded to automobile displays and the like.

An Organic EL element (Organic Light Emitting element) constituting an Organic EL display device has a basic structure in which a functional layer having a Light Emitting layer as an Organic layer that generates Light emission between two facing electrodes (cathode electrode, anode electrode) is formed. The functional layer and the electrode layer of the organic EL element can be produced by, for example, forming a film of the material constituting each layer on a substrate through a mask in a vacuum film forming apparatus.

The organic EL element is manufactured by sequentially transferring a substrate to each film forming chamber and sequentially forming an electrode and various functional layers on a surface to be processed of the substrate. Patent document 1 discloses a manufacturing apparatus configured to connect a plurality of cluster units, in which a plurality of film forming chambers and inspection chambers are provided in each unit, and a substrate formed in a certain film forming chamber is transferred to the inspection chamber to measure a film thickness. Further, there is disclosed a configuration in which a light emission characteristic simulation is performed using the film thickness measurement result, and the chromaticity correction layer is formed in the same film forming chamber or another film forming chamber based on the simulation result.

[ Prior art documents ]

[ patent document ]

[ patent document 1 ] Japanese patent laid-open No. 2005-322612

Disclosure of Invention

[ problem to be solved by the invention ]

In the configuration of patent document 1, since the inspection chamber is provided in the cluster type unit, the substrate has to be carried into and out of the inspection chamber by using a substrate transfer robot disposed at the center of the unit. In this case, the substrate transfer robot is used only for inspection in the inspection chamber, and there is a problem that the operation rate of the substrate transfer robot is increased and the maintenance cost is increased as compared with a case where the inspection chamber is not provided in the cluster type unit. In addition, since one chamber that can be used for film formation is occupied for inspection, the number of layers that can be formed by one unit (compared to the case where no inspection chamber is provided) is reduced. As a result, for example, although the manufacturing can be performed by three units in the related art, there is a disadvantage that four or more units are required. This drawback may lead to a reduction in throughput due to an increase in the number of times of transferring between units, and may lead to an increase in the size of the entire manufacturing apparatus (an increase in installation area).

The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and an object thereof is to provide a technique for realizing highly accurate film thickness control and high productivity in a film deposition apparatus having a structure in which a plurality of cluster type units are connected.

[ MEANS FOR solving PROBLEMS ] A method for solving the problems

The present disclosure includes a film forming apparatus, characterized in that,

the film forming apparatus includes:

a first unit of a cluster type having a first conveyance mechanism and a plurality of film forming chambers arranged around the first conveyance mechanism and including a first film forming chamber that forms a first film on a substrate;

a cluster type second unit having a second conveyance mechanism and a plurality of film forming chambers arranged around the second conveyance mechanism and including a second film forming chamber for forming a second film overlapping the first film on the substrate;

a connection chamber which is disposed in a transfer path of the substrate from the first unit to the second unit and connects the two cluster-type units; and

and a first measuring section, at least a part of which is provided in the connection chamber, for measuring a thickness of a film formed on the substrate.

[ Effect of the invention ]

According to the present invention, in a film deposition apparatus having a structure in which a plurality of cluster type units are connected, highly accurate film thickness control and high productivity can be achieved.

Drawings

Fig. 1 is a plan view schematically showing a structure of a part of an electronic device manufacturing apparatus.

Fig. 2 is a diagram schematically showing the structure of a vacuum vapor deposition apparatus provided in a film forming chamber.

Fig. 3 is a sectional view schematically showing the structure of the passage chamber.

Fig. 4 is a diagram showing alignment marks and film thickness measurement patches on a substrate.

Fig. 5 is a block diagram schematically showing the structure of the film-thickness measuring section.

Fig. 6 is a block diagram schematically showing the configuration of the film thickness control system.

Fig. 7 (a) is an overall view of the organic EL display device, fig. 7 (b) is a view showing a cross-sectional structure of one pixel, and fig. 7 (c) is an enlarged view of a red layer.

Fig. 8 is a diagram schematically showing a lamination process of the example.

Fig. 9 is a time chart of the comparative example.

Fig. 10 is a timing chart of the embodiment.

Fig. 11 is a time chart of the comparative example.

Fig. 12 is a timing chart of the embodiment.

[ description of reference ]

CU1, CU2, CU 3: cluster type unit

EV 11-EV 14, EV 21-EV 24, EV 31-EV 34: film forming chamber

RR1, RR2, RR 3: transfer robot

CN1, CN 2: connecting chamber

PS1, PS 2: passage chamber

S: substrate

310: film thickness measuring part

350: film thickness control part

Detailed Description

Preferred embodiments and examples of the present invention will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings. However, the following embodiments and examples are merely illustrative of preferred configurations of the present invention, and the scope of the present invention is not limited to these configurations. In the following description, unless otherwise specified, the hardware configuration and software configuration, the process flow, the manufacturing conditions, the dimensions, the materials, the shapes, and the like of the devices are not intended to limit the scope of the present invention to these.

The present invention is applicable to an apparatus for sequentially transferring a substrate to a plurality of film forming chambers and depositing various materials on the surface of the substrate to form a film, and is preferably applicable to an apparatus for forming a thin film (material layer) having a desired pattern by vacuum deposition. As a material of the substrate, any material such as glass, a film of a polymer material, or a metal may be selected, and the substrate may be, for example, a glass substrate on which a film of polyimide or the like is laminated. When a plurality of layers are formed over a substrate, the layers formed up to the previous step are also referred to as "substrates". Further, as the vapor deposition material, any material such as an organic material or a metallic material (metal, metal oxide, or the like) may be selected. The present invention can be applied to a film deposition apparatus having a sputtering apparatus or a cvd (chemical Vapor deposition) apparatus, in addition to the vacuum deposition apparatus described in the following description. Specifically, the technique of the present invention can be applied to manufacturing apparatuses for organic electronic devices (e.g., organic EL elements, thin-film solar cells, organic photoelectric conversion elements), optical members, and the like. In particular, an apparatus for manufacturing an organic electronic device in which an organic EL element or an organic photoelectric conversion element is formed by evaporating a vapor deposition material and depositing the vapor deposition material on a substrate through a mask having an opening pattern corresponding to a pixel or a sub-pixel is one of preferable application examples of the present invention. Among these, an apparatus for manufacturing an organic EL element is one of particularly preferable application examples of the present invention.

< electronic device manufacturing apparatus >

The electronic device manufacturing apparatus of fig. 1 is used for manufacturing a display panel of an organic EL display device for a smart phone, for example. In the case of a display panel for a smartphone, for example, a film for forming an organic EL element is formed on a 4 th or 5 th generation substrate (about 700mm × about 900mm), a 6 th generation substrate (about 1500mm × about 1850mm), or a half-cut substrate (about 1500mm × about 925mm), and then the substrate is punched out to produce a plurality of small-sized panels.

The electronic device manufacturing apparatus has a structure in which a plurality of cluster type cells (hereinafter also simply referred to as "cells") CU1 to CU3 are connected via a connecting chamber. The cluster type unit is referred to as a film forming unit having a structure in which a plurality of film forming chambers are arranged around a substrate transfer robot as a substrate transfer mechanism. The number of cells is not limited to three, and may be two or more. Hereinafter, in the description of the common elements and the description of the unspecified elements, reference numerals denoted by "x" instead of numerals as in "CUx" may be used, and in the description of the individual elements, reference numerals denoted by numerals as in "CU 1" may be used (the same applies to the reference numerals denoted by the elements other than the elements). Fig. 1 shows a part of a film deposition apparatus in the entire electronic device manufacturing apparatus. For example, a substrate storage, a heating device, a pretreatment device such as cleaning, etc. may be provided upstream of the film forming apparatus, and for example, a sealing device, a processing device, a processed substrate storage, etc. may be provided downstream of the film forming apparatus, and these devices may be integrated to constitute an electronic device manufacturing apparatus.

The cluster type unit CUx has a transfer chamber TRx at the center, a plurality of film forming chambers EVx1 to EVx4 and mask chambers MSx1 to MSx2 arranged around the transfer chamber TRx. Two adjacent cells CUx and CUx +1 are connected by a junction CNx. The chambers TRx, EVx1 to EVx4, MSx1 to MSx2, and the connecting chamber CNx in the cluster cell CUx are spatially connected to each other, and the inside thereof is maintained in an inert gas atmosphere such as vacuum or nitrogen. In the present embodiment, each of the constituent units CUx and the connection chamber CNx is connected to a vacuum pump (vacuum exhaust mechanism), not shown, and can be independently evacuated. Each chamber is also referred to as a "vacuum chamber" or simply "chamber". In the present specification, "vacuum" refers to a state in which the gas is filled with a gas having a pressure lower than atmospheric pressure.

The transfer chamber TRx is provided with a transfer robot RRx as a transfer mechanism for transferring the substrate S and the mask M. The transfer robot RRx is, for example, an articulated robot having a structure in which a robot hand holding the substrate S and the mask M is attached to an articulated arm. In the cluster type unit CUx, the substrate S is conveyed by a conveying mechanism such as a conveying robot RRx or a conveying robot RCx (described later) while keeping the surface to be processed (film formation surface) of the substrate S oriented horizontally downward in the direction of gravity. The robot hand included in the transfer robot RRx or the transfer robot RCx includes a holding portion for holding the peripheral edge region of the surface to be processed of the substrate S. The transfer robot RRx transfers the substrate S between the passage chamber PSx-1 on the upstream side, the film forming chambers EVx1 to EVx4, and the buffer chamber BCx on the downstream side. The transfer robot RRx then transfers the mask M between the mask chamber MSx1 and the film forming chambers EVx1 and EVx2, and transfers the mask M between the mask chamber MSx2 and the film forming chambers EVx3 and EVx 4. The transfer robot RRx or the robot hand of the transfer robot RCx performs a predetermined operation according to a predetermined program stored in the transfer control unit. When a plurality of substrates are sequentially or simultaneously deposited in parallel in a plurality of deposition chambers or a plurality of units, the operation of each robot is set so as to efficiently transfer the plurality of substrates. For example, due to an error in the operation of the robot hand caused by a change in the flexibility of the arm or the like, the position of the substrate on the transfer path may deviate from the ideal transfer position. In order to finely adjust the movement of the robot hand, the program for determining the movement of the robot hand is modified as necessary.

The mask chambers MSx1 to MSx2 are chambers provided with mask stockers for storing masks M used for film formation and used masks M, respectively. The masks M used in the film forming chambers EVx1 and EVx3 are stored in the mask chamber MSx1, and the masks M used in the film forming chambers EVx2 and EVx4 are stored in the mask chamber MSx 2. As the mask M, a metal mask formed with a plurality of openings is preferably used.

The film forming chambers EVx1 to EVx4 are chambers for forming a film material layer on the surface of the substrate S. Here, the film forming chambers EVx1 and EVx3 are chambers having the same function (chambers capable of performing the same film forming process), and similarly, the film forming chambers EVx2 and EVx4 are chambers having the same function. With this configuration, the film formation process of the first path such as the film formation chamber EVx1 → EVx2 and the film formation process of the second path such as the film formation chamber EVx3 → EVx4 can be performed in parallel.

The connection chamber CNx has a function of connecting the cell CUx and the cell CUx +1, and transferring the substrate S formed in the cell CUx to the next cell CUx + 1. The connection chamber CNx of the present embodiment is constituted by the buffer chamber BCx, the swirling chamber TCx, and the passage chamber PSx in this order from the upstream side. As described later, the structure of the connection chamber CNx is preferable from the viewpoint of improving productivity of the film formation apparatus or from the viewpoint of improving usability. However, the configuration of the connection chamber CNx is not limited to this, and the connection chamber CNx may be configured by only the buffer chamber BCx or the passage chamber PSx.

The buffer chamber BCx is a chamber for transferring the substrate S between the transfer robot RRx in the cell CUx and the transfer robot RCx in the link chamber CNx. The buffer chamber BCx has a function of adjusting the carrying-in speed and the carrying-in timing of the substrates S by temporarily storing a plurality of substrates S when there is a difference in processing speed between the cell CUx and the next cell CUx +1, or when the substrates S cannot be moved as usual due to the influence of a failure on the downstream side. By providing the buffer chamber BCx having such a function in the junction chamber CNx, high productivity can be achieved, and high flexibility in film formation can be achieved in lamination of various layer structures. For example, in the buffer chamber BCx, there are provided: a substrate storage shelf (also referred to as a cassette) having a multistage structure capable of storing a plurality of substrates S in a horizontal state in which a surface to be processed of the substrate S is held downward in the direction of gravity; and a lifting mechanism for lifting the substrate storage shelf to make the section for sending in or sending out the substrate S aligned with the conveying position.

The whirling chamber TCx is a chamber for rotating the orientation of the substrate S by 180 degrees. A transfer robot RCx for transferring the substrate S from the buffer chamber BCx to the passage chamber PSx is provided in the whirling chamber TCx. When the end of the substrate S on the upstream side is referred to as the "rear end" and the end of the substrate S on the downstream side is referred to as the "front end", the transfer robot RCx turns around 180 degrees and transfers the substrate S to the passage chamber PSx while supporting the substrate S received in the buffer chamber BCx, and thereby the front end and the rear end of the substrate S are replaced in the buffer chamber BCx and the passage chamber PSx. Accordingly, since the upstream cell CUx and the downstream cell CUx +1 face the same direction when the substrate S is loaded into the film deposition chamber, the scanning direction for film deposition on the substrate S and the direction of the mask M can be made uniform in each cell CUx. With such a configuration, the direction in which the mask M is placed in the mask chambers MSx1 to MSx2 can be made uniform in each cell CUx, and management of the mask M can be simplified and usability can be improved.

The passage chamber PSx is a chamber for transferring the substrate S between the transfer robot RCx in the coupling chamber CNx and the transfer robot RRx +1 in the downstream cell CUx + 1. In the present embodiment, alignment of the substrate S and measurement of the film thickness of the film formed on the substrate S are performed in the passage chamber PSx. In this way, the alignment mechanism and the film thickness measurement unit are disposed in the same chamber, and the film thickness is measured after alignment is performed, whereby the positional accuracy of the film thickness measurement portion in the substrate can be improved. This makes it possible to keep the film thickness measurement portion constant in each substrate, and to evaluate the film thickness with high accuracy.

The deposition chambers EVx1 to EVx4, the mask chambers MSx1 to MSx2, the transfer chamber TRx, the buffer chamber BCx, the swirl chamber TCx, and the passage chamber PSx may be provided with openable and closable doors (e.g., gate valves or gate valves), or may be always open.

< vacuum deposition apparatus >

Fig. 2 schematically shows the structure of the vacuum vapor deposition apparatus 200 provided in the film forming chambers EVx1 to EVx 4.

The vacuum vapor deposition apparatus 200 includes a mask holder 201 that holds a mask M, a substrate holder 202 that holds a substrate S, an evaporation source unit 203, a moving mechanism 204, a film formation rate monitor 205, and a film formation control unit 206. The mask holder 201, the substrate holder 202, the evaporation source unit 203, the moving mechanism 204, and the film formation rate monitor 205 are provided in the vacuum chamber 207. The vacuum vapor deposition apparatus 200 further includes a position adjustment mechanism (alignment mechanism), not shown, for moving at least one of the mask holder 201 and the substrate holder 202 to perform alignment between the mask M held by the mask holder 201 and the substrate S held by the substrate holder 202.

The substrate S is placed on the upper surface of the mask M held in a horizontal state with the processed surface facing downward. An evaporation source unit 203 is provided below the mask M. The evaporation source unit 203 generally includes a container (crucible) for containing a film forming material, a heater for heating the film forming material in the container, and the like. Further, the evaporation source unit 203 may be provided with a reflector, a heat transfer member, a baffle plate, and the like for improving heating efficiency, as necessary. The moving mechanism 204 is a mechanism for moving (scanning) the evaporation source unit 203 in parallel with the surface to be processed of the substrate S. In the present embodiment, the single-axis movement mechanism 204 is used, but a movement mechanism having two or more axes may be used. In the present embodiment, the substrate S is placed on the upper surface of the mask M, but the substrate S may not be placed on the upper surface of the mask M as long as the substrate S is sufficiently closely attached to the mask M. In the present embodiment, a magnet, not shown, is brought close to the surface of the substrate S opposite to the surface to be processed, and the mask foil of the mask M is attracted by magnetic force, thereby improving the adhesion of the mask M to the substrate S. In fig. 2, the evaporation source unit 203 is shown as one unit, but a plurality of evaporation source units or containers may be arranged in parallel and moved integrally. With this configuration, different materials can be stored in the evaporation source units or containers and evaporated, and a mixed film or a laminated film can be formed.

The film formation rate monitor 205 is a sensor for monitoring the film formation rate of the thin film formed on the substrate S. The film formation rate monitor 205 is a crystal oscillation type film formation rate monitor, has a crystal oscillator that moves together with the evaporation source unit 203, and estimates a film formation rate (vapor deposition rate) that is an amount of deposition of a film formation material per unit time based on a change in a resonance frequency (natural frequency) caused by deposition of the film formation material on a surface of the crystal oscillator (imparting mass)

. The film formation rate monitor 205 may be disposed in the vicinity of the surface to be processed of the substrate S.

The film formation controller 206 controls the film formation rate based on the film formation rate obtained by the film formation rate monitor 205

And adjusting the film forming time [ s ] by the film thickness value evaluated by the first film thickness measuring part described later]Thereby, the thickness of the thin film formed on the substrate S is controlled to a target value. The film formation time is adjusted by changing the scanning speed of the evaporation source unit 203 by the moving mechanism 204. In the present embodiment, the film thickness is controlled by adjusting the film formation time (adjusting the scanning speed), but the evaporation amount (ejection amount) of the material may be controlled by adjusting the heater temperature of the evaporation source unit 203, the shutter opening of the evaporation source unit 203, or the like, as is generally performed in a conventional vacuum vapor deposition apparatus. And also The film formation control unit 206 may perform the adjustment of the film formation time and the adjustment of the evaporation amount in combination. That is, the film formation controller 206 may control the evaporation source unit 203 so as to adjust at least one of the scanning speed, the heater temperature, and the shutter opening. The configuration for measuring (acquiring) the film thickness of the film formed on the substrate in the film forming chamber using the film formation rate monitor 205 corresponds to the second film thickness measuring unit of the present invention.

< alignment mechanism of passage chamber >

Fig. 3 is a sectional view schematically showing the structure of the passage chamber PSx. Fig. 3 corresponds to section a-a of fig. 1.

The passage chamber PSx is provided with an alignment mechanism for aligning the substrate S. The substrate S transferred through the transfer chamber TRx and the whirling chamber TCx has positional variations due to the positional accuracy of the robot used for transfer. In the present embodiment, this positional deviation can be suppressed by the alignment mechanism provided in the passage chamber PSx. The alignment mechanism generally has: a substrate tray 301 disposed inside the vacuum chamber 300; an XY θ driving device 302 for driving the substrate tray 301 in the X-axis direction, the Y-axis direction, and the θ direction; a camera 305 for imaging (the alignment mark 304 of) the substrate S through a window 303 provided on the bottom surface of the vacuum chamber 300; and an alignment control 306. The camera 305 and the alignment control unit 306 correspond to a position acquisition unit that acquires positional information of the substrate S disposed inside the vacuum chamber 300 with respect to the vacuum chamber 300. Based on the acquired positional information, the XY θ drive device 302 as a moving mechanism moves the substrate S relative to the vacuum chamber 300. In the present embodiment, the passage chamber PSx is configured to be able to accommodate only one substrate, but may be able to accommodate a plurality of substrates.

When the substrate S is placed on the substrate tray 301 by the transfer robot RCx in the whirling chamber TCx, the alignment mark 304 of the substrate S is photographed by the camera 305. The alignment control unit 306 detects the position and inclination of the alignment mark 304 from the image captured by the camera 305, and thereby calculates the amount of positional deviation (Δ X, Δ Y) and the amount of rotational deviation (Δ θ) of the substrate S from the reference position. Then, the alignment controller 306 controls the XY θ drive device 302 to correct the positional deviation and the rotational deviation of the substrate S, thereby aligning the substrate S. A reference mark indicating a reference position may be provided in the passage chamber PSx. Further, the reference mark may be imaged when the alignment mark 304 of the substrate S is imaged by the camera 305, thereby obtaining the amount of positional deviation and the amount of rotational deviation of the substrate S from the reference position.

When forming a film on the substrate S in the film forming chambers EVx1 to EVx4, the substrate S and the mask M need to be accurately aligned. Therefore, in the film forming chambers EVx1 to EVx4, it is necessary to perform ultra-high precision positioning called precision alignment of the substrate S. As in the present embodiment, by performing rough alignment of the substrate S in the passage chamber PSx in advance, the initial amount of deviation when the substrate S is loaded into the film forming chamber of the subsequent stage unit CUx +1 is suppressed to be small, and therefore, the time required for precise alignment in the film forming chamber can be shortened. Further, by performing (rough) alignment in advance before film thickness measurement, the positional accuracy of the film thickness measurement portion in the substrate can be improved. This makes it possible to keep the film thickness measurement portion constant in each substrate, and to evaluate the film thickness with high accuracy.

Fig. 4 shows an example of the alignment mark 304 on the substrate S. In this example, alignment marks 304 are attached to two corners on the rear end side of the substrate S. However, the arrangement of the alignment mark 304 is not limited to this, and for example, the alignment mark may be arranged at a corner portion on the tip side, may be arranged at two corner portions or all four corner portions of the opposite corners, or may be arranged at a position along the edge without being arranged at the corner portion. The number of the alignment marks 304 is also arbitrary. Alternatively, the edge or corner of the substrate S may be detected instead of the alignment mark 304 on the substrate S.

< measurement part of film thickness >

As shown in fig. 3, the passage chamber PSx is provided with a film thickness measuring unit 310 as a first film thickness measuring unit for measuring the film thickness of the film formed on the substrate S. Although only one film-thickness measuring unit 310 is shown in fig. 3, a plurality of film-thickness measuring units may be provided. By evaluating a plurality of portions at a time, information on the variation in film thickness within the substrate surface can be obtained, or a plurality of types of films formed in a plurality of film forming chambers can be evaluated collectively.

The film thickness measuring unit 310 is a sensor (optical sensor) that optically measures the film thickness, and in the present embodiment, a reflection spectroscopic film thickness meter is used. The film-thickness measuring section 310 is roughly composed of a film-thickness evaluation unit 311, a sensor head 312, and an optical fiber 313 connecting the sensor head 312 and the film-thickness evaluation unit 311. The sensor head 312 is disposed below the substrate tray 301 in the vacuum chamber 300, and is connected to an optical fiber 313 via a vacuum flange 314 attached to the bottom surface of the vacuum chamber 300. The sensor head 312 has a function of setting an irradiation zone of light guided through the optical fiber 313 to a predetermined zone, and optical members such as an optical fiber, a pinhole, and a lens can be used.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram of the film-thickness measuring unit 310. The film thickness evaluation unit 311 includes a light source 320, a spectroscope 321, and a measurement control unit 322. The light source 320 is a device for measuring light output, and for example, a deuterium lamp, a xenon lamp, a halogen lamp, or the like can be used. The wavelength of light may be in the range of 200nm to 1 μm. The spectroscope 321 is a device that performs spectroscopy (intensity of each wavelength) on the reflected light input from the sensor head 312, and measures a spectrum, and is configured by, for example, a detector that performs photoelectric conversion with a spectroscopic element (such as a grating or a prism). The measurement control unit 322 is a device for controlling the light source 320, calculating the film thickness based on the reflection spectrum, and the like.

The measurement light output from the light source 320 is guided to the sensor head 312 via the optical fiber 313, and is projected from the sensor head 312 toward the substrate S. The light reflected by the substrate S is input from the sensor head 312 to the beam splitter 321 via the optical fiber 313. At this time, light reflected on the surface of the thin film on the substrate S and light reflected on the interface of the thin film and its underlying layer interfere with each other. This is affected by interference or absorption by the thin film, and thus the reflection spectrum is affected by the difference in optical path length, i.e., the film thickness. The measurement control unit 322 can measure the film thickness of the thin film by analyzing the reflection spectrum. The above-described evaluation of the film thickness by the reflection spectroscopic method is a technique preferable as evaluation of an organic layer of an organic EL device because it enables highly accurate evaluation in a short time even for evaluation of an organic film having a thickness of several nm to several hundred nm. Here, as the material of the organic layer, α NPD: a hole-transporting material such as α -naphthylphenylbiphenyldiamine (α -naphthylphenylbiphenyldiamine), ir (ppy) 3: light-emitting materials such as tris (2-phenylpyridine) Iridium (Iridium-phenylpyrimidine) complex, Alq 3: tris (8-hydroxyquinoline) aluminum (Tris (8-quinolinolato) aluminum) or Liq: and electron transport materials such as 8-hydroxyquinoline-lithium (8-hydroxyquinolato-lithium). Further, the present invention can also be applied to a mixed film of the above organic materials.

Fig. 4 shows an example of a thin film for measuring a film thickness formed on the substrate S. A film thickness measurement zone 330 is provided in the substrate S at a position not overlapping with a region where the display panel 340 is formed (in the illustrated example, the front end portion of the substrate S). During the film formation process in each film formation chamber, a thin film for film thickness measurement (hereinafter, referred to as a measurement patch 331, and also referred to as a measurement sheet or an organic film for evaluation) is formed in the film thickness measurement zone 330 by performing film formation at a predetermined position in the film thickness measurement zone 330 in parallel with film formation at a portion of the display panel 340. This can be easily achieved by forming an opening for the measurement patch 331 in advance in the mask M used in each film forming chamber.

The film thickness measurement zone 330 is set to have an area in which a plurality of measurement patches 331 can be formed, and it is preferable to change the formation positions of the measurement patches 331 in units of layers to be measured for film thickness. That is, when the film thickness of the film formed in one film forming chamber (a single film or a laminated film in which a plurality of films are laminated) is to be measured, the film formed in one film forming chamber (a single film or a laminated film) is formed only in the portion of the measurement patch 331, and when the film thickness of the laminated film formed via a plurality of film forming chambers is to be measured, the same laminated film as the laminated film to be measured is preferably formed in the portion of the measurement patch 331. By thus making the measurement patches 331 different for each layer to be measured, accurate measurement of the film thickness can be achieved. As described above, in the configuration in which the film thickness is measured after alignment, since the accuracy of the film thickness measurement position is high, the measurement patches 331 can be reduced in size and can be arranged at high density. This can reduce the area of the film thickness measurement zone 330 in the substrate, and can further increase the number of display panels 340 formed on the substrate.

< control of film thickness with high precision >

The vacuum vapor deposition apparatus 200 in each film forming chamber is controlled so that the film formation rate of the film formed by using the film formation rate monitor 205 becomes the target film formation rate as described above. However, the film formation rate monitor 205 does not directly measure the thickness of the film formed on the substrate S, but indirectly measures the film formation rate by a crystal oscillator disposed at a position different from the substrate S. Therefore, due to various error factors such as the amount of deposition of the material on the crystal resonator and the temperature of the crystal resonator, the film thickness of the crystal resonator film deposited on the film formation rate monitor 205 may be different from the film thickness of the film deposited on the substrate S, or an error may occur in the measurement value itself of the film formation rate monitor 205. A measurement error of the film thickness of the film formed on the substrate S by the film formation rate monitor 205 causes a variation in the film thickness, which leads to a reduction in panel quality and a reduction in yield, and therefore measures are required.

Therefore, in the present embodiment, the thickness of the thin film formed on the substrate S is directly measured by the film thickness measuring unit 310, and the film forming conditions in each film forming chamber are controlled based on the measurement results, thereby realizing highly accurate film thickness control. In controlling the film forming conditions, both the value of the film forming rate monitor 205 and the measurement result of the film thickness measuring unit 310 may be used. The film formation rate monitor 205 for evaluating the amount of deposition on the crystal oscillator and the film thickness measuring unit 310 for optically evaluating the film thickness on the substrate S differ from each other in measurement principle, and therefore differ from each other in operation such as disturbance, environmental variation, and film formation state variation. Therefore, by using a plurality of evaluation means having different measurement principles as described above, it is possible to control the film thickness with higher reliability.

Fig. 6 is a block diagram schematically showing the configuration of the film thickness control system. The film thickness control unit 350 transmits a control command to the film formation control unit 206 of each film formation chamber based on the measurement result of the film thickness measurement unit 310. Methods for controlling the film forming conditions are roughly classified into feedback control and feedforward control. The feedback control is control in which the film thickness control section 350 controls the film formation conditions in the film formation chamber upstream of the film thickness measurement section 310 to adjust the film thickness of the subsequent substrate Ss. The feedforward control is control in which the film thickness control unit 350 controls the film forming conditions in the film forming chamber on the downstream side of the film thickness measuring unit 310 to adjust the film thickness of the substrate S measured by the film thickness measuring unit 310. The film thickness control unit 350 may perform either feedback control or feedforward control, or both. Further, the control method may be different for each film forming chamber or each unit. The film formation conditions to be controlled are, for example, a film formation time, a scanning speed of the evaporation source unit 203, a heater temperature of the evaporation source unit 203, a shutter opening degree of the evaporation source unit 203, and the like. The film thickness control section 350 may control any one of the above-described film formation conditions, or may control a plurality of film formation conditions. In the present embodiment, the scanning speed is controlled.

According to the film formation apparatus (electronic device manufacturing apparatus) of the present embodiment, since the mechanism for adjusting the film formation conditions based on the measurement result of the film thickness measurement unit 310 is provided, it is possible to correct the error of the film formation rate monitor 205 due to the crystal oscillator, and to realize highly accurate film thickness control. Further, by disposing the film-thickness measuring unit 310 in the connection chamber instead of the cluster type unit, it is possible to suppress an increase in size (an increase in installation area) of the apparatus. Furthermore, since the film thickness measurement can be performed by utilizing the time during which the substrate is temporarily left in the connection chamber for the transfer of the substrate between the units, the influence of the film thickness measurement on the productivity (throughput) of the entire apparatus can be reduced as much as possible. In particular, in a film forming apparatus in which a plurality of film forming chambers are connected to a cluster unit, high productivity can be maintained.

< method for producing electronic device >

Next, an example of a method for manufacturing an electronic device will be described. Hereinafter, the structure and the manufacturing method of the organic EL display device are exemplified as an example of the electronic device.

First, the organic EL display device manufactured will be described. Fig. 7 (a) is an overall view of the organic EL display device 50, fig. 7 (b) is a view showing a cross-sectional structure of one pixel, and fig. 7 (c) is an enlarged view of a red layer.

As shown in fig. 7 (a), a plurality of pixels 52 each including a plurality of light-emitting elements are arranged in a matrix in the display region 51 of the organic EL display device 50. Each of the light emitting elements has a structure including an organic layer sandwiched between a pair of electrodes, and details thereof will be described later. The pixel herein is a minimum unit that can display a desired color in the display region 51. In the case of a color organic EL display device, the pixel 52 is configured by a combination of a plurality of sub-pixels of the first light-emitting element 52R, the second light-emitting element 52G, and the third light-emitting element 52B which exhibit different light emissions from each other. The pixel 52 is often configured by a combination of three types of sub-pixels, i.e., a red (R) light-emitting element, a green (G) light-emitting element, and a blue (B) light-emitting element, but is not limited thereto. The pixel 52 may include at least one type of sub-pixel, and preferably includes two or more types of sub-pixels, and more preferably includes three or more types of sub-pixels. The sub-pixels constituting the pixel 52 may be a combination of four kinds of sub-pixels, for example, a red (R) light-emitting element, a green (G) light-emitting element, a blue (B) light-emitting element, and a yellow (Y) light-emitting element, or a combination of a yellow (Y) light-emitting element, a cyan (C) light-emitting element, and a magenta (M) light-emitting element.

Fig. 7 (B) is a partial cross-sectional view taken along line a-B of fig. 7 (a). The pixel 52 has a plurality of sub-pixels formed of an organic EL element including a first electrode (anode) 54, a hole transport layer 55, any one of a red layer 56R, a green layer 56G, and a blue layer 56B, an electron transport layer 57, and a second electrode (cathode) 58 on a substrate 53. Among them, the hole transport layer 55, the red layer 56R, the green layer 56G, the blue layer 56B, and the electron transport layer 57 correspond to organic layers. The red, green, and blue color layers 56R, 56G, and 56B are formed in patterns corresponding to light-emitting elements (also referred to as organic EL elements) that emit red, green, and blue colors, respectively. The first electrode 54 is formed separately for each light emitting element. The hole transport layer 55, the electron transport layer 57, and the second electrode 58 may be formed in common to the plurality of

light emitting elements

52R, 52G, and 52B, or may be formed for each light emitting element. That is, as shown in fig. 7 (B), the hole transport layer 55 may be formed as a common layer over a plurality of sub-pixel regions, the red, green, and blue color layers 56R, 56G, and 56B may be formed separately for each sub-pixel region, and the electron transport layer 57 and the second electrode 58 may be formed as a common layer over a plurality of sub-pixel regions. An insulating layer 59 is provided between the first electrodes 54 in order to prevent short-circuiting between the adjacent first electrodes 54. Further, the organic EL layer is deteriorated by moisture or oxygen, and therefore a protective layer 60 for protecting the organic EL element from moisture or oxygen is provided.

In fig. 7 (b), the hole transport layer 55 or the electron transport layer 57 is illustrated as one layer, but may be formed of a plurality of layers having a hole blocking layer or an electron blocking layer depending on the structure of the organic EL display element. Further, a hole injection layer having an energy band structure that can smoothly inject holes from the first electrode 54 into the hole transport layer 5 may be formed between the first electrode 54 and the hole transport layer 55. Similarly, an electron injection layer may be formed between the second electrode 58 and the electron transport layer 57.

The red, green, and blue color layers 56R, 56G, and 56B may be formed of a single light-emitting layer, or may be formed by laminating a plurality of layers. Fig. 7 (c) shows an example in which the red layer 56R is formed by two layers. For example, the red light-emitting layer may be the upper layer 56R2, and the hole transport layer or the electron blocking layer may be the lower layer 56R 1. Alternatively, the red light-emitting layer may be the lower layer 56R1, and the electron transport layer or the hole blocking layer may be the upper layer 56R 2. By providing the layer on the lower side or the upper side of the light-emitting layer in this way, the light-emitting position in the light-emitting layer is adjusted, and the color purity of the light-emitting element can be improved by adjusting the optical path length. Although fig. 7 (c) shows an example of the red color layer 56R, the green color layer 56G and the blue color layer 56B may have the same configuration. The number of layers may be two or more. Further, layers of different materials may be stacked as in the light-emitting layer and the electron-blocking layer, or layers of the same material may be stacked by stacking two or more layers of the light-emitting layer.

Next, an example of a method for manufacturing the organic EL display device will be specifically described. Here, it is assumed that the red layer 56R is composed of two layers, i.e., the lower layer 56R1 and the upper layer 56R2, and the green layer 56G and the blue layer 56B are composed of a single light-emitting layer.

First, the substrate 53 on which the circuit (not shown) for driving the organic EL display device and the first electrode 54 are formed is prepared. The material of the substrate 53 is not particularly limited, and may be made of glass, plastic, metal, or the like. In the present embodiment, a substrate in which a film of polyimide is laminated on a glass substrate is used as the substrate 53.

A resin layer of acrylic, polyimide, or the like is applied by bar coating or spin coating on the substrate 53 on which the first electrode 54 is formed, and the resin layer is patterned by photolithography to form an opening in a portion where the first electrode 54 is formed, thereby forming the insulating layer 59. The opening corresponds to a light-emitting region where the light-emitting element actually emits light.

The substrate 53 on which the insulating layer 59 is formed is sent into a first film formation chamber, and the hole transport layer 55 is formed as a common layer on the first electrode 54 in the display region. The hole transport layer 55 is formed using a mask having openings formed in accordance with the display regions 51, and the display regions 51 eventually become panel portions of the individual organic EL display devices. The mask used in the first deposition chamber is also provided with an opening in a portion of the substrate 53 corresponding to the film thickness measurement zone 330, which is different from the portion corresponding to the zone where the display panel 340 is formed. The opening is formed at a position different from the mask used in the other film forming chambers in the portion corresponding to the film thickness measurement zone 330. Thereby, the measurement patch 331 in which only the hole transport layer 55 is formed can be formed in the film thickness measurement zone 330.

Next, the substrate 53 having the hole transport layer 55 formed thereon is sent into the second film forming chamber. The substrate 53 is placed on the mask by aligning the substrate 53 with the mask, and the lower layer 56R1 (for example, a hole transport layer or an electron blocking layer) is formed on the hole transport layer 55 at a portion where the red-emitting element of the substrate 53 is disposed (a region where the red subpixel is formed). Then, the substrate 53 is conveyed into the third film forming chamber, and the upper layer 56R2 (for example, a red light emitting layer) is formed on the lower layer 56R1 in an overlapping manner. Here, the masks used in the second film formation chamber and the third film formation chamber are high-definition masks each having an opening formed in a plurality of regions of only red subpixels, out of a plurality of regions on the substrate 53 serving as subpixels of the organic EL display device. Thus, the lower layer 56R1 and the upper layer 56R2 are formed only in the region of the red sub-pixel out of the regions of the plurality of sub-pixels on the substrate 53. In other words, the lower layer 56R1 and the upper layer 56R2 are formed not in the region of the plurality of sub-pixels on the substrate 53 that is the blue sub-pixel region and the green sub-pixel region, but in the red sub-pixel region. Note that, although the mask used in the second film formation chamber and the mask used in the third film formation chamber have a common aperture pattern in the portion of the substrate 53 corresponding to the region where the display panel 340 is formed, the aperture patterns are different in the portion corresponding to the film thickness measurement region 330. That is, by forming openings at different positions in the respective masks for the portions corresponding to the film thickness measurement zones 330, it is possible to form the measurement patches 331 in which only the lower layer 56R1 is formed and the measurement patches 331 in which only the upper layer 56R2 is formed.

Similarly to the red layer 56R, the green layer 56G is formed in the fourth film forming chamber, and the blue layer 56B is formed in the fifth film forming chamber. After the red, green, and

blue layers

56R, 56G, and 56B are formed, the electron transport layer 57 is formed in the sixth film forming chamber over the entire display region 51. The electron transport layer 57 is formed as a common layer on the three-

color layers

56R, 56G, and 56B.

The substrate having the electron transport layer 57 formed thereon is moved to a seventh film forming chamber, and a second electrode 58 is formed thereon. In the present embodiment, each layer is formed in the first to seventh film forming chambers by vacuum deposition. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and for example, the second electrode 58 in the seventh film forming chamber may be formed by sputtering. Then, the substrate formed with the second electrode 68 is moved to a sealing device, and the protective layer 60 is formed by plasma CVD (sealing step), thereby completing the organic EL display device 50. Here, the protective layer 60 is formed by a CVD method, but the present invention is not limited thereto, and may be formed by an ALD method or an inkjet method.

Until the substrate 53 on which the insulating layer 59 is formed is conveyed to a film forming apparatus and the formation of the protective layer 60 is completed, if the substrate is exposed to an atmosphere containing moisture or oxygen, the light-emitting layer made of an organic EL material may be deteriorated by moisture or oxygen. Therefore, the substrate is transferred between the film forming chambers in a vacuum atmosphere or an inert gas atmosphere.

In the case where the red layer 56R, the green layer 56G, and the blue layer 56B are each formed of a single light-emitting layer, the red light-emitting layer is formed in the second film formation chamber or the third film formation chamber, and the substrate is then conveyed to the fourth conveyance chamber. In this case, either the second film forming chamber or the third film forming chamber may be omitted.

< example of controlling film thickness >

A specific example of film thickness control by the film thickness control system will be described. In example 1, after the first layer was formed in the first film forming chamber, film thickness control was performed in which film thickness information of the first layer measured by the first film thickness measuring section in the passage chamber was fed back to the film forming conditions in the first film forming chamber. In example 2, in the lamination process in which the first layer is formed and then the second layer is formed so as to overlap with the first layer, film thickness control is performed in which film thickness information of the first layer measured by the first film thickness measuring section in the passage chamber is fed forward to film forming conditions in the second film forming chamber. That is, a specific configuration example of the present embodiment controls at least one of the film formation conditions of the first film formation chamber (first film formation conditions) and the film formation conditions of the second film formation chamber (second film formation conditions) as the control step based on the film thickness measured in the film thickness measurement step.

(example 1)

The description is made with reference to fig. 1. For example, after a first layer is formed on the substrate S in the film forming chamber EV12, the substrate S is transferred from the film forming chamber EV12 to the buffer chamber BC1 by the transfer robot RR 1. Next, the substrate S1 is transferred from the buffer chamber BC1 to the passage chamber PS1 by the transfer robot RC1 in the link chamber CN1, and alignment of the substrate S1 is performed in the passage chamber PS 1. Then, the film thickness of the first layer is measured by the film thickness measuring unit 310 in the passage chamber PS 1. The film thickness controller 350 performs feedback control of the film forming chamber EV12 in the unit CU1 based on the film thickness information of the first layer acquired in the passage chamber PS1, and adjusts film forming conditions for forming a subsequent substrate in the film forming chamber EV 12. For example, the scanning speed (transfer speed) of the evaporation source in the film chamber EV12 was adjusted. In this case, when the measured value of the film thickness is smaller than the target film thickness, the scanning speed of the evaporation source in the film forming chamber EV12 is adjusted to be slower, and when the measured value of the film thickness is larger than the target film thickness, the scanning speed of the evaporation source in the film forming chamber EV12 is adjusted to be faster. By performing such feedback control, a favorable film thickness can be obtained for a subsequent substrate on which a film formation process is performed after the substrate S.

In this embodiment, film formation is performed while sequentially conveying a plurality of substrates in a plurality of cluster-type units included in a film forming apparatus (electronic device manufacturing apparatus). For example, when focusing attention on the order of substrates flowing through the conveyance path in the film forming apparatus is the nth substrate (in other words, the nth substrate passing through the passage chamber PS 1), the film thickness information of the first layer formed on the nth substrate in the film forming chamber EV12 acquired by the passage chamber PS1 is fed back to the film forming conditions when the (n +1) th and subsequent substrates are formed in the film forming chamber EV 12.

From the viewpoint of rapidly performing feedback control to increase the number of substrates having a good film thickness (to reduce the number of substrates that may become defective), it is preferable to feed back the film thickness information of the first layer formed on the nth substrate to the film forming conditions at the time of forming the (n +1) th substrate, which is the immediately succeeding substrate to be formed in the film forming chamber EV 12. Thus, for example, when the film thickness of the first layer of the nth substrate deviates from the target value, the occurrence of the substrate having the film thickness of the first layer deviating from the target value as much as possible can be suppressed as much as the nth substrate. This can be easily achieved if the film formation on the (n +1) th substrate in the film forming chamber EV12 is started after the completion of the acquisition of the film thickness information on the first layer of the nth substrate in the passage chamber PS 1. However, the film formation on the (n +1) th substrate in the film forming chamber EV12 may be started without waiting for completion of the acquisition of the film thickness information of the first layer of the nth substrate in the passage chamber PS 1. In this case, the film thickness information of the first layer of the nth substrate in the passage chamber PS1 may be acquired before the film formation of the (n +1) th substrate in the film forming chamber EV12 is completed, and the feedback control may be performed during the film formation of the (n +1) th substrate in the film forming chamber EV 12. In this case, the film thickness of the film formed in the film forming chamber EV12 up to a certain point in the middle of the film formation on the (n +1) th substrate may be estimated based on the film thickness information of the first layer of the nth substrate, the difference to the target film thickness may be calculated, and the remaining film formation in the film forming chamber EV12 may be controlled so that a film having the difference in film thickness can be formed. In this way, the film formation on the (n +1) th substrate is started without waiting for the completion of the acquisition of the film thickness information on the n-th substrate, and the feedback control is performed in the middle of the film formation on the (n +1) th substrate, whereby the film thickness control with high production efficiency and high accuracy can be realized.

In the structure of this embodiment, the film forming chambers EV12 and EV14 form layers of the same material for the substrates fed in. In each of film forming chambers EV12 and EV14, two stages (substrate holders) are disposed in the respective film forming chambers, and a mask and a substrate are attached to one of the stages while the other stage is performing a film forming process. One evaporation source unit (film forming source) for discharging a material to a substrate held on a stage is provided in each film forming chamber, and when film formation on one stage is completed, the evaporation source unit is shifted to the other stage, and film formation on the substrate mounted on the other stage that has been completed is started. By adopting such a structure, productivity can be improved. At this time, if the two stations of the film forming chamber EV12 are set as the station ST12A and the station ST12B, and the two stations of the film forming chamber EV14 are set as the station ST14A and the station ST14B, the film thickness information of the substrate formed by the station ST12A is preferably fed back to the film formation in the station ST12A and the station ST12B, and more preferably fed back only to the film formation in the station ST 12A. Since the stations ST12A and ST12B are formed from the same evaporation source unit, the film thicknesses of the films to be formed are easily the same, and thus, by performing feedback control in common on the two stations, it is possible to efficiently perform highly accurate film thickness control. Even when the same evaporation source units are used, the film thicknesses of the films to be formed may slightly differ depending on the positions of the evaporation source units. Therefore, by feeding back the film thickness information of the film formed on a specific stage only to the film formation on the specific stage, it is possible to realize more accurate film thickness control. In the case of performing the faster feedback control, the film thickness information of the film formed in the film forming chamber EV12 may be subjected to the feedback control for the film formation in the film forming chamber EV 14. The destination to which such feedback control is applied may be switched by a user operation.

As described above, in the present embodiment, a plurality of stations are provided in one film forming chamber, and the application destination of the feedback can be determined for each film forming chamber or each station. Therefore, the film thickness control unit 350 may further include a storage unit (not shown) that stores the film thickness information acquired by the film thickness measurement unit 310 in association with information of a film forming chamber in which the film is formed and information of a stage in the film forming chamber.

Comparative example

As a comparative example, a configuration is described in which the film-thickness measuring section 310 is provided in the film forming chamber EV12 but not in the passage chamber PS 1. In the comparative example, after the first layer was formed on the substrate S in the film forming chamber EV12, the film thickness of the first layer formed on the substrate S was measured by the film thickness measuring unit 310 in the film forming chamber EV 12. The film thickness control unit 350 performs feedback control for the film forming chamber EV12 based on the film thickness information of the first layer acquired in the film forming chamber EV12, and adjusts the film forming conditions when forming the subsequent substrate in the film forming chamber EV 12.

In the comparative example, since the film thickness measurement was performed in the film forming chamber EV12 after the film forming process was completed, the flow of the substrate S in the first unit CU1 was temporarily stopped in the film forming chamber EV 12. Therefore, the time required for film thickness measurement slows down the transfer of the substrate to the next unit, which becomes a rate limitation and reduces the throughput of the entire apparatus. In contrast, in example 1, since the film thickness is measured by the passage chamber PS1, the feedback of the film formation conditions can be performed with little or no influence on the tact time. In the transport path of the substrate S, the connection chamber CN1 including the passage chamber PS1 is a zone in which the timing of feeding the substrate S to the second unit CU2 is adjusted in accordance with the progress of the film formation flow of the preceding substrate in the downstream second unit CU 2. That is, the film thickness can be measured by the timing (period) adjusted. Therefore, the film forming conditions can be fed back without affecting the tact time.

A specific example of the method of manufacturing an electronic device in which the present embodiment is applied will be described. Here, a lamination process in which a first layer which is a common layer is formed as shown in fig. 8, and then a second layer and a third layer are formed in parallel thereon is exemplified. For example, in the case of the organic EL display device shown in fig. 7 (b), the hole transport layer 55 corresponds to the first layer, the red layer 56R corresponds to the second layer, and the green layer 56G corresponds to the third layer.

First, a comparative example is shown with reference to fig. 9. Fig. 9 is a timing chart of a comparative example, in which reference numerals denote the cluster type unit, the film forming chamber, the link chamber, the substrate transfer robot, and the like shown in fig. 1.

In the comparative example, both the first layer and the second layer were formed in the same unit CU 1. That is, after the first layer was formed on the substrate S1 in the film forming chamber EV11, the substrate S1 was conveyed from the film forming chamber EV11 to the EV12 by the conveying robot RR 1. Then, after a second layer is formed in the film forming chamber EV12 so as to overlap the first layer, the substrate S1 is transferred from the film forming chamber EV12 to the buffer chamber BC1 by the transfer robot RR 1. Next, the substrate S1 is transferred from the buffer chamber BC1 to the passage chamber PS1 by the transfer robot RC1 in the link chamber CN1, and alignment of the substrate S1 is performed in the passage chamber PS 1. Then, the film thickness of the first layer is measured by the film thickness measuring unit 310 in the passage chamber PS 1. When the film thickness of the first layer is different from the target value, the film thickness controller 350 performs feedback control on the film forming chamber EV11 in the unit CU1 to adjust the film forming conditions for the subsequent substrate S2. On the other hand, the substrate S1 on which the film thickness measurement was completed was transferred from the passage chamber PS1 to the film forming chamber EV21 of the second unit CU2 by the transfer robot RR2, and a third layer was formed.

By performing such feedback control, the film thickness of the first layer in the subsequent substrate S2 can be corrected to an appropriate value. However, in such a procedure, if the measurement of the first layer thickness of the preceding substrate is not waited for, the film formation of the first layer on the next substrate cannot be started, and therefore, it is difficult to improve the throughput of the apparatus.

Therefore, in the present embodiment, the following structure is adopted: the film formation order is set so that the first layer and the second layer are formed by different means, the film thickness of the first layer is measured in the connected chamber immediately after the film formation of the first layer, and feedback control of the first layer is performed based on the measurement result.

The present embodiment is explained with reference to fig. 10. Fig. 10 is a timing chart of the embodiment. First, a first layer is formed in the first film forming chamber EV11 in the first unit CU1, and the substrate S1 is transferred from the film forming chamber EV11 to the buffer chamber BC1 by the transfer robot RR 1. That is, the substrate S1 on which the film formation of the first layer (common layer) in the first film forming chamber EV11 is completed is transferred to the coupling chamber without passing through another film forming chamber. In the present embodiment, the other film forming chambers (film forming chambers EV12 and EV14) are disposed downstream of the first film forming chamber EV11 in the substrate flow direction in the first unit CU1, and film formation of other layers can be performed by these film forming chambers, but in the present embodiment, even in such an apparatus configuration, the substrate S1 is not conveyed to the downstream connection chamber via the other film forming chambers, and film formation processing is not performed in the other film forming chambers (film forming chambers EV12 and EV 14). Next, the substrate S1 is transferred from the buffer chamber BC1 to the passage chamber PS1 by the transfer robot RC1 in the link chamber CN1, and alignment of the substrate S1 is performed in the passage chamber PS 1. Then, the film thickness of the first layer is measured by the film thickness measuring unit 310 in the passage chamber PS 1. When the film thickness of the first layer is different from the target value, the film thickness control unit 350 performs feedback control on the first film forming chamber EV11 in the first unit CU 1. For example, the scanning speed of the first film forming chamber EV11 may be reduced when the film thickness of the first layer is smaller than the target value, and the scanning speed of the first film forming chamber EV11 may be increased when the film thickness of the first layer is larger than the target value. On the other hand, the substrate S1, on which the film thickness measurement is completed, is transferred from the passage chamber PS1 to the second film forming chamber EV21 of the second unit CU2 by the transfer robot RR2, and a second layer is formed. Then, the substrate S1 was transferred from the film forming chamber EV21 to EV22 by the transfer robot RR2, and a third layer was formed. When the second film is formed in the second film forming chamber EV21 or the third film is formed in the third film forming chamber EV22 with respect to the substrate S1, feed-forward control may be performed to control the film forming conditions in the second film forming chamber EV21 or the third film forming chamber EV22 based on the film thickness of the first layer measured in the passage chamber PS 1. Thus, even when the film thickness of the first layer of the substrate S1 is different from the target value, the optical path length of each light-emitting element (each sub-pixel) can be adjusted by adjusting the film thickness of the film formed after the first layer, thereby improving the color purity of the light-emitting element.

According to the feedback control of the present embodiment, since the film thickness measurement and feedback of the first layer are performed immediately after the film formation of the first layer, the timing of starting the film formation of the subsequent substrate S2 can be advanced as compared with the procedure of the comparative example. Therefore, the throughput of the apparatus can be improved, and high productivity can be achieved.

The embodiments described herein are merely examples. For example, the cell in which the film formation of the first layer is performed and the cell in which the film formation of the second layer is performed need not be adjacent to each other via the connection chamber, and may be separated as in the cell CU1 and the cell CU3 in fig. 1. That is, the connection chamber provided with the film-thickness measuring unit 310 may be disposed between the upstream unit (for example, CU1) and the downstream unit (for example, CU 3). However, in this case, it is preferable from the viewpoint of productivity that the film thickness measuring unit 310 is provided in a connected chamber connected immediately after the unit for forming the first layer.

In addition, when a plurality of layers are stacked, the film thickness of the lower first layer can be controlled with high accuracy. This is extremely advantageous in the case of forming a common layer requiring precision. In general, a common layer such as a hole transport layer is formed thicker than a light emitting layer formed thereon by sub-pixel division. For example, common layers to

The red, blue and green layers (a single layer of light-emitting layers of the respective colors or a layer in which light-emitting layers of the respective colors and an adjustment layer are laminated together) are formed in the same thickness

The film thickness was approximately equal. Thus, the common layer is formed to have a film thickness about 3 to 5 times larger than each of the red, blue and green layers. When the common layer is formed thick as described above, even if the feed-forward control is performed as described above when the film thickness of the common layer deviates from the target value, the film thickness of the entire common layer cannot be adjusted to the full extent due to the deviation of the film thickness of the common layer from the target value. Further, since it is necessary to adjust the film thickness of each of the red, blue, and green division coat layers, the control becomes complicated, and the tact time of the entire apparatus may increase depending on the case. In such a case, as in the present embodiment, by measuring the film thickness immediately after the completion of the film formation of the common layer and performing feedback control on the film formation of the common layer based on the measurement result, it is possible to reduce the number of substrates that become defective substrates by feed-forward control to the subsequent film forming chamber without being adjusted, and it is possible to improve the yield.

(example 2)

In example 2, first, a first layer is formed in the first film forming chamber EV12 in the first unit CU1, and the substrate S1 is transferred from the film forming chamber EV12 to the buffer chamber BC1 by the transfer robot RR 1. Next, the substrate S1 is transferred from the buffer chamber BC1 to the passage chamber PS1 by the transfer robot RC1 in the link chamber CN1, and alignment of the substrate S1 is performed in the passage chamber PS 1. Then, the film thickness of the first layer is measured by the film thickness measuring unit 310 in the passage chamber PS 1. The film thickness controller 350 performs feed-forward control of the second film forming chamber EV21 in the second unit CU2 based on the film thickness information of the first layer acquired in the passage chamber PS 1.

A specific example of film thickness control by the film thickness control system will be described. In a lamination process in which a first layer is formed and then a second layer is formed so as to overlap the first layer, the thickness of the first layer and the thickness of the second layer are controlled so that the sum of the thicknesses of the first layer and the second layer becomes a target value.

First, a comparative example is shown with reference to fig. 11. Fig. 11 is a timing chart of a comparative example, in which reference numerals denote the cluster type unit, the film forming chamber, the link chamber, the substrate transfer robot, and the like shown in fig. 1.

In the comparative example, both the first layer and the second layer were formed in the same unit CU 1. That is, after the first layer was formed on the substrate S1 in the film forming chamber EV11, the substrate S1 was conveyed from the film forming chamber EV11 to the EV12 by the conveying robot RR 1. Then, after a second layer is formed in the film forming chamber EV12 so as to overlap the first layer, the substrate S1 is transferred from the film forming chamber EV12 to the buffer chamber BC1 by the transfer robot RR 1. Next, the substrate S1 is transferred from the buffer chamber BC1 to the passage chamber PS1 by the transfer robot RC1 in the link chamber CN1, and alignment of the substrate S1 is performed in the passage chamber PS 1. Then, in the passage chamber PS1, the film thickness of the sum of the first layer and the second layer is measured by the film thickness measuring unit 310. When the total film thickness of the first layer and the second layer is different from the target value, the film thickness controller 350 performs feedback control on the film forming chambers EV11 and EV12 in the unit CU1 to adjust the film forming conditions for the subsequent substrate S2.

By performing such feedback control, the total film thickness of the first layer and the second layer can be brought close to the target value. However, in this method, although a good film thickness can be obtained on the substrate subjected to the film formation process after the substrate S1 having the measured film thickness (after the substrate S2), the film thickness of the substrate S1 itself cannot be corrected, and thus the substrate S1 may become a defective substrate.

Therefore, in the present embodiment, the following structure is adopted: the film formation order is set so that the first layer and the second layer are formed by different means, the film thickness of the first layer is measured in the connected chamber after the film formation of the first layer and before the film formation of the second layer, and the film thickness of the second layer is controlled (corrected) based on the measurement result.

The present embodiment is explained with reference to fig. 12. Fig. 12 is a timing chart of the embodiment. First, a first layer is formed in the first film forming chamber EV12 in the first unit CU1, and the substrate S1 is transferred from the film forming chamber EV12 to the buffer chamber BC1 by the transfer robot RR 1. Next, the substrate S1 is transferred from the buffer chamber BC1 to the passage chamber PS1 by the transfer robot RC1 in the link chamber CN1, and alignment of the substrate S1 is performed in the passage chamber PS 1. Then, the film thickness of the first layer is measured by the film thickness measuring unit 310 in the passage chamber PS 1. When the film thickness of the first layer is different from the predetermined value, the film thickness control unit 350 performs feed-forward control on the second film forming chamber EV21 in the second unit CU 2. At this time, the film thickness control unit 350 controls the film forming conditions of the second film forming chamber EV21 so that the total film thickness of the first layer and the second layer becomes a target value. For example, when the film thickness of the first layer is smaller than the predetermined value, the scanning speed of the second film forming chamber EV21 may be decreased to increase the film thickness of the second layer, whereas when the film thickness of the first layer is larger than the predetermined value, the scanning speed of the second film forming chamber EV21 may be increased to decrease the film thickness of the second layer.

According to the feedforward control of this embodiment, since the film thickness of the substrate S1 itself whose film thickness has been measured can be adjusted (corrected), the occurrence of defective substrates can be suppressed as much as possible, and the yield can be improved.

The feedforward control of the present embodiment can be preferably used in a case where two or more layers are selectively stacked in a region where a specific sub-pixel is formed, such as the red layer 56R shown in fig. 7 (c). That is, the film formation of the lower layer 56R1 (first layer) and the film formation of the upper layer 56R2 are performed by different units, and the film formation conditions of the upper layer 56R2 are adjusted based on the measurement result of the lower layer 56R1, whereby the film thickness of the entire red layer 56R is brought close to the target value.

The embodiments described herein are merely examples. For example, when one functional layer is formed of three layers, the lower layer is formed by the first unit, and the film formation conditions for the uppermost layer in the second unit may be controlled based on the measurement result of the film thickness of the lower layer. Further, the cell in which the film formation of the first layer is performed and the cell in which the film formation of the second layer is performed need not be adjacent to each other via the connection chamber, and may be separated as in the cell CU1 and the cell CU3 in fig. 1. That is, the connection chamber provided with the film-thickness measuring unit 310 may be disposed between the upstream unit (for example, CU1) and the downstream unit (for example, CU 3). Further, the film formation process of the first layer and the film formation process of the second layer need not be performed continuously, and a film formation process of another layer may be performed at a position not overlapping the first layer between the film formation process of the first layer and the film formation process of the second layer.

According to the film formation apparatus (electronic device manufacturing apparatus) of the present embodiment, when a plurality of layers are stacked, the total film thickness of the two layers can be controlled with high accuracy by adjusting the film formation conditions of the upper second layer based on the film thickness of the lower first layer. This can improve productivity and yield.

According to the feedforward control of example 2, since the film thickness of the substrate S1 itself whose film thickness has been measured can be adjusted (corrected), the occurrence of defective substrates can be suppressed as much as possible, and the yield can be improved. Further, since the film thickness is measured by the passage chamber PS1, the influence on the tact time can be reduced, as in example 1.

The embodiments described herein are merely examples. For example, the feed-forward control of example 2 may be performed in the film forming chamber of a unit further downstream than the second unit CU 2. Further, feedforward control may be performed on one downstream film forming chamber based on a plurality of pieces of film thickness information acquired in a plurality of passage chambers, respectively.

In the feedback control of example 1, for example, feedback from passage chamber PS1 may be provided to film forming chamber EV11 and film forming chamber EV12, respectively. That is, measurement patches were separately formed in the film forming chamber EV11 and the film forming chamber EV12, and the film thickness information obtained from each measurement patch was fed back to the film forming chamber EV11 and the film forming chamber EV12, respectively. In this case, two film thickness measurement units are provided in the passage chamber PS1 at positions corresponding to the respective measurement patches, and thus the film thickness can be simultaneously evaluated in parallel. When layers of the same material are formed in the film forming chamber EV11 and the film forming chamber EV12, the total film thickness information of the first layer and the second layer can be used for feedback.

In addition, when a plurality of layers are formed to overlap over a plurality of cells, it is sometimes effective to feed back the total film thickness information obtained after the film formation of the outermost layer to the film forming chamber of the most upstream cell.

< others >

The above embodiments are merely specific examples of the present invention. The present invention is not limited to the configuration of the above embodiment, and various modifications can be adopted. For example, the number of cluster elements provided in the electronic device manufacturing apparatus may be any number as long as the number is two or more. The configuration of each cluster type unit is also arbitrary, and the number of film forming chambers and the number of mask chambers may be appropriately set according to the application. In the above embodiment, the apparatus configuration in which the film forming process can be performed in two paths of the film forming chamber EVx1 → EVx2 and the film forming chamber EVx3 → EVx4 is shown, but the apparatus configuration may be one path or three or more paths. In the film forming apparatus having a plurality of paths, since the film thickness measuring section is provided in the connecting chamber, it is not necessary to provide the film thickness measuring section in each path, and therefore the number of the film thickness measuring sections can be reduced, and the cost and the apparatus size can be reduced. The film thickness measuring section may be provided only in a part of the connection chambers and need not be provided in all the connection chambers of the electronic device manufacturing apparatus. That is, the film thickness measuring section may be provided only at a portion where high-precision control of the film thickness is required. In the above embodiment, the reflection spectroscopic film thickness meter is used, but another film thickness meter (for example, spectroscopic ellipsometer) may be used.

Claims

1. A film forming apparatus is characterized in that,

the film forming apparatus includes:

2. The film forming apparatus according to claim 1,

the joint chamber has:

a position acquisition unit that acquires information on a position of a substrate disposed inside the connected chamber in the connected chamber; and

and a moving mechanism that moves the substrate inside the connection chamber based on the position information acquired by the position acquiring mechanism.

3. The film forming apparatus according to claim 2,

the moving mechanism moves the substrate to a measurement position based on the position information,

the first measurement unit measures a thickness of a film formed on the substrate after the substrate is moved by the movement mechanism.

4. The film forming apparatus according to claim 1,

the first measuring unit optically measures a thickness of a film formed on the substrate.

5. The film forming apparatus according to claim 1,

the film forming apparatus includes a second measuring unit, at least a part of which is provided in the first film forming chamber, and measures a thickness of a film formed on a substrate accommodated in the first film forming chamber.

6. The film forming apparatus according to claim 1,

the film forming apparatus includes a crystal oscillation type film formation rate monitor, at least a part of which is provided in the first film forming chamber, and measures a discharge amount of a film forming material from an evaporation source.

7. The film forming apparatus according to claim 1,

the film forming apparatus includes a control unit that controls at least one of the film forming conditions of the first film forming chamber and the film forming conditions of the second film forming chamber based on the thickness of the film measured by the first measurement unit.

8. The film forming apparatus according to claim 5,

the film forming apparatus further includes a control unit that controls at least one of the film forming conditions of the first film forming chamber and the film forming conditions of the second film forming chamber based on the thickness of the film measured by the first measuring unit and the thickness of the film measured by the second measuring unit.

9. The film forming apparatus according to claim 6,

the film forming apparatus further includes a control unit that controls at least one of the film forming conditions in the first film forming chamber and the film forming conditions in the second film forming chamber based on the thickness of the film measured by the first measuring unit and the discharge amount of the film forming material measured by the film forming rate monitor.

10. The film forming apparatus according to claim 1,

the substrate has an element region where an element is formed and a measurement region different from the element region,

forming the first film in each of the element region and the measurement region in the film formation performed in the first film formation chamber,

the first measurement section measures a thickness of the first film formed in the measurement region.

11. The film forming apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 10,

the connection chamber comprises a buffer chamber capable of accommodating a plurality of substrates, a swirl chamber for changing the orientation of the substrates, and a passage chamber for transferring the substrates,

the at least a part of the first measuring section is provided in the passage chamber.

12. The film forming apparatus according to claim 11,

the buffer chamber, the swirling chamber, and the passage chamber are arranged in this order from the upstream side in the transport path,

the passage chamber is disposed adjacent to a downstream-side cluster type cell of the two cluster type cells connected by the connecting chamber.

13. The film forming apparatus according to claim 11,

the two cluster-type units connected by the connection chamber are respectively provided with a substrate transfer mechanism for transferring substrates,

the substrate transfer mechanism of the upstream one of the two cluster type units feeds the substrate into the buffer chamber,

a transfer robot provided in the whirling chamber for transferring the substrate from the buffer chamber to the passage chamber while changing the direction of the substrate,

The substrate transfer mechanism of the downstream cluster unit of the two cluster units sends out the substrate disposed in the passage chamber.

14. The film forming apparatus according to claim 11,

the joint chamber has:

a position acquisition unit that acquires information on a position of a substrate disposed inside the connection chamber in the passage chamber; and

and a moving mechanism that moves the substrate inside the passage chamber based on the positional information acquired by the position acquiring mechanism.

15. The film forming apparatus according to claim 14,

16. The film forming apparatus according to claim 11,

the preceding substrate accommodated in the passage chamber is sent out from the passage chamber, and then the subsequent substrate is sent into the passage chamber.

17. The film forming apparatus according to claim 11,

The buffer chamber may accommodate a larger number of substrates than the passage chamber.

18. The film forming apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 10,

and controlling the film forming conditions of the second film forming chamber based on the thickness of the first film measured by the first measuring unit.

19. The film forming apparatus according to claim 18,

the substrate has:

a first pixel region formed with a plurality of first light emitting elements that respectively emit light of a first wavelength; and

a second pixel region in which a plurality of second light-emitting elements that emit light of second wavelengths different from the first wavelengths, respectively, are formed,

forming the first film in the first pixel region and not forming the first film in the second pixel region in the film formation performed by the first film formation chamber,

in the film formation performed by the second film formation chamber, the second film is formed in the first pixel region, and the second film is not formed in the second pixel region.

20. The film forming apparatus according to claim 18,

The film forming conditions of the second film forming chamber are controlled based on the thickness of the first film measured by the first measuring unit so that the thickness obtained by adding the first film and the second film is included in a predetermined range.

21. The film forming apparatus according to claim 19,

the first film constitutes a hole transport layer or an electron blocking layer,

the second film constitutes a light-emitting layer.

22. The film forming apparatus according to claim 19,

the first film constitutes a light-emitting layer,

the second film constitutes an electron transport layer or a hole blocking layer.

23. The film forming apparatus according to claim 19,

the substrate has a measurement region different from the first pixel region and the second pixel region,

forming the first membrane in the measurement region in the first membrane forming chamber,

24. The film forming apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 10,

controlling the film forming conditions of the first film forming chamber based on the thickness of the first film measured by the first measuring section.

25. The film forming apparatus according to claim 24,

at least a part of the first measuring section is disposed in the connection chamber connected to the first unit.

26. The film forming apparatus according to claim 25,

the first transfer mechanism transfers the substrate on which the first film is formed from the first film forming chamber to the joining chamber without passing through another film forming chamber.

27. The film forming apparatus according to claim 24,

the substrate has:

a first pixel region formed with a plurality of first light emitting elements that respectively emit light of a first wavelength;

forming the first film in each of the first pixel region and the second pixel region in the film formation performed in the first film formation chamber,

28. The film forming apparatus according to claim 27, wherein,

The first film constitutes a hole transport layer or an electron blocking layer of each of the first light-emitting element and the second light-emitting element,

the second film constitutes a light-emitting layer of the first light-emitting element.

29. The film forming apparatus according to claim 27, wherein,

the film forming apparatus further includes a third film forming chamber in which a third film is formed in the second pixel region and the third film is not formed in the first pixel region.

30. The film forming apparatus according to claim 29, wherein,

the second film constitutes a light-emitting layer of the first light-emitting element,

the third film constitutes a light-emitting layer of the second light-emitting element.

31. A method of manufacturing an electronic device, characterized in that,

the manufacturing method of the electronic device includes:

forming the first film by using the film forming apparatus according to claim 1; and

and forming the second film by using the film forming apparatus.

32. A film-forming method characterized in that,

the film forming method includes:

A first film formation step of forming a first film on a substrate;

a second film forming step of forming a second film on the substrate;

a measuring step of measuring a thickness of the first film while the substrate is held in a vacuum chamber; and

and a control step of controlling the film formation conditions of the second film formation step based on the thickness of the first film measured in the measurement step.

33. The film forming method according to claim 32,

the substrate has:

in the first film formation step, the first film is formed in the first pixel region, and the first film is not formed in the second pixel region,

in the second film forming step, the second film is formed in the first pixel region, and the second film is not formed in the second pixel region.

34. A film-forming method characterized in that,

the film forming method includes:

A first film formation step of forming a first film on a first substrate;

a second film forming step of forming a second film on the first substrate;

a measuring step of measuring a thickness of the first film while the substrate is held in a vacuum chamber;

a third film forming step of forming a third film on the second substrate in the film forming chamber in which the first film forming step is performed; and

and a control step of controlling the film forming conditions in the third film forming step based on the thickness of the first film measured in the measuring step.

35. The film forming method according to claim 34,

the substrate has:

in the first film formation step, the first film is formed in each of the first pixel region and the second pixel region,

in the second film formation step, the second film is formed in the first pixel region, and the second film is not formed in the second pixel region,

In the third film formation step, the third film is formed in each of the first pixel region and the second pixel region.

36. A method of manufacturing an electronic device, wherein,

a method for manufacturing an electronic device, wherein the film-forming method according to any one of claims 32 to 35 is used.