CN114525474A

CN114525474A - Evaporation crucible and evaporation device

Info

Publication number: CN114525474A
Application number: CN202210229319.6A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 蔡瀚霆
Original assignee: Wuhan China Star Optoelectronics Semiconductor Display Technology Co Ltd
Current assignee: Wuhan China Star Optoelectronics Semiconductor Display Technology Co Ltd
Priority date: 2022-03-10
Filing date: 2022-03-10
Publication date: 2022-05-24

Abstract

The application discloses coating by vaporization crucible and coating by vaporization device, the coating by vaporization crucible includes: a crucible main body; the first guide plate is vertically arranged in the crucible main body and divides the crucible main body into a material accommodating space and a guiding space, and the material accommodating space comprises a plurality of mutually independent material accommodating chambers; wherein the first guide plate is provided with a guide structure for guiding the steam in each material accommodating chamber into the guide space. This application coating by vaporization crucible and coating by vaporization device can solve the coating by vaporization material and the inhomogeneous problem of coating by vaporization air current distribution of current vertical evaporation source crucible.

Description

Evaporation crucible and evaporation device

Technical Field

The application relates to the technical field of evaporation, in particular to an evaporation crucible and an evaporation device.

Background

Organic Light Emitting Diode (OLED) displays are being actively developed by various large display manufacturers due to their advantages of simple structure, self-luminescence, fast response speed, ultra-lightness, thinness, low power consumption, etc.

The OLED light-emitting device is mainly completed by an evaporation process, the current small and medium generation evaporation machine mainly adopts a horizontal evaporation film forming mode, but for a large-size generation evaporation machine, due to the fact that the size of a glass substrate is increased, the horizontal placing sagging amount of the substrate can be greatly increased, and the vertical evaporation becomes a newly developed direction for reducing the sagging amount, and therefore the development requirement of a vertical evaporation source crucible is generated.

The design of the evaporation source crucible has a great influence on the uniformity of the film thickness of the formed film. If a conventional horizontal evaporation source crucible is vertically placed, there is a problem that the evaporation material is entirely deposited on the lower portion of the crucible. In addition, since the evaporation steam mainly escapes to the upper space of the crucible, the evaporation steam is uniformly distributed, so that the upper and lower film thicknesses of the evaporation film layer on the vertical substrate are not uniformly distributed. Therefore, how to realize uniform distribution of crucible material and airflow of the vertical evaporation source plays a key role in ensuring the uniformity of the film thickness of the formed film.

Therefore, it is desirable to provide a deposition crucible and a deposition apparatus to solve the above-mentioned problems.

Disclosure of Invention

In order to solve the technical problem, the application provides an evaporation crucible and evaporation device to solve the problem that the distribution of evaporation materials and evaporation airflow of the existing vertical evaporation source crucible is uneven.

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides a deposition crucible and a deposition apparatus.

The application provides an evaporation crucible, the evaporation crucible includes:

a crucible main body; and (c) a second step of,

the first guide plate is vertically arranged on the crucible main body and divides the crucible main body into a material accommodating space and a guiding space, and the material accommodating space comprises a plurality of mutually independent material accommodating chambers;

the first guide plate is provided with a guide structure so as to guide the airflow of each material accommodating chamber into the guide space.

Optionally, in some embodiments of the present application, the plurality of material receiving compartments are arranged in a vertical row.

Optionally, in some embodiments of the present application, in the same material accommodating chamber, the flow area of the flow guiding structure is S1, and the area of the first flow guiding plate in the material accommodating chamber is S2, then the S1 and the S2 satisfy the following relationship: S1/S2 is not more than 1/3.

Optionally, in some embodiments of the present application, in each of the material receiving chambers, the flow directing structure is proximate to a top of the material receiving chamber.

Optionally, in some embodiments of the present application, the flow-guiding structure has one or more through-holes having a shape of a square, a circle, a linear ring, or a cylinder.

Optionally, in some embodiments of the present application, the evaporation crucible further includes a second flow guide plate, and the second flow guide plate is provided with a plurality of flow guide holes arranged in an array;

the second guide plate is vertically arranged at the outlet of the guiding space and is used for guiding the steam in the guiding space out of the evaporation crucible.

Optionally, in some embodiments of the present application, the crucible body further comprises a plurality of partitions and a connecting member;

the plurality of partition plates are horizontally arranged in the material accommodating space and are arranged at intervals along the vertical direction;

the connecting piece is arranged on one side of the partition plates facing the first guide plate and is used for connecting the first guide plate with the partition plates.

Optionally, in some embodiments of the present application, a plurality of first insertion portions are disposed on a side of the first baffle facing the material accommodating space, and a second insertion portion is disposed on a side of each of the partitions adjacent to the first baffle;

the first insertion part is in insertion fit with the second insertion part.

Optionally, in some embodiments of the present application, at least one stopper is installed in each of the material receiving chambers, and the stopper is used for fixing the compact crucible.

Correspondingly, this application still provides an evaporation plating device, evaporation plating device includes like this application the coating by vaporization crucible.

Compared with the prior art, the evaporation crucible and the evaporation device have the first guide plate with the plurality of guide structures through the arrangement, can enable each material to accommodate the cavity and seal and separate each other, prevent the evaporation material from overflowing and depositing at the bottom of the crucible, and can adjust the uniformity of airflow emergent airflow of each material accommodating cavity simultaneously, thereby solving the problem that the evaporation material and the evaporation airflow facing the vertical crucible are not uniformly distributed.

Drawings

The technical solution and other advantages of the present application will become apparent from the detailed description of the embodiments of the present application with reference to the accompanying drawings.

Fig. 1 is a schematic view of a vertical cross section of an evaporation crucible according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Fig. 2 is a schematic view of an evaporation crucible with a removed sidewall according to an embodiment of the present invention, mainly showing a layout manner of a first flow guide plate in the evaporation crucible.

Fig. 3 is a schematic view of a ring connector according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Fig. 4 is a schematic diagram of a partition board according to an embodiment of the invention.

Fig. 5 is a schematic view of a first embodiment of a first baffle according to one embodiment of the present invention.

Fig. 6 is a schematic view of a second embodiment of a first baffle according to one embodiment of the present invention.

Fig. 7 is a schematic view of an evaporation crucible according to an embodiment of the present invention.

The main reference numbers in the drawings accompanying the present specification are as follows:

flow guide structure of 100 evaporation crucibles 21, 21a, 21b

10 crucible body 22 inserting fin

20 first guide plate 31 guide hole

30 second guide plate 110 material containing chamber

11 partition 120 lead-out space

12 connector 1101 second plug-in part

13 stopper

Detailed Description

The technical solutions in the embodiments of the present application will be clearly and completely described below with reference to the drawings in the embodiments of the present application, and it is obvious that the described embodiments are only a part of the embodiments of the present application, and not all of the embodiments. All other embodiments, which can be derived by a person skilled in the art from the embodiments given herein without making any creative effort, shall fall within the protection scope of the present application. Furthermore, it should be understood that the detailed description and specific examples, while indicating exemplary embodiments of the invention, are given by way of illustration and explanation only, and are not intended to limit the scope of the invention. In the present application, unless indicated to the contrary, the use of the directional terms "upper" and "lower" generally refer to the upper and lower positions of the device in actual use or operation, and more particularly to the orientation of the figures of the drawings; while "inner" and "outer" are with respect to the outline of the device.

In order to solve the problem that the distribution of vapor deposition materials and vapor deposition air flows is uneven in the existing vertical evaporation source crucible, the embodiment of the application provides an evaporation crucible 100.

Referring to fig. 1 and 2, the evaporation crucible 100 includes a crucible body 10 and a first flow guide plate 20 vertically disposed in the crucible body 10. The first baffle plate 20 divides the crucible body 10 into a material accommodating space 110 and a lead-out space 120, and the material accommodating space 110 includes a plurality of material accommodating chambers 111 independent of each other. The first baffle 20 is provided with a flow guiding structure 21 for guiding the air flow of each material accommodating chamber 111 into the guiding space 120.

Specifically, the material accommodating chamber 111 is used to accommodate a vapor deposition material, and the vapor deposition material accommodated in the material accommodating chamber 111 is heated to be evaporated or sublimated to form vapor deposition vapor (hereinafter, referred to as vapor). In this case, the gas flow may be at least the evaporation vapor. The vapor deposition steam can exit to the guiding space 120 through the guiding structure 21 of the first guiding plate 20, and then can be used for vapor deposition on a target object through a Nozzle (Nozzle) communicated with the guiding space 120. The target may be a vertically disposed substrate.

Heretofore, in the evaporation crucible 100 of the present application, the material accommodating chambers 111 can be entirely closed and isolated from each other by vertically disposing a first flow guide plate 20 inside the evaporation crucible 100, so that each material accommodating chamber 111 forms an individual closed space as a whole, thereby preventing the evaporation material from being entirely deposited in the lower portion of the crucible. Meanwhile, the air flow is emitted through the flow guide structure 21, each material accommodating chamber 111 can be similar to a single point source, and the air flow of each material accommodating chamber 111 can be controlled to be uniformly emitted through the flow guide structure 21.

The type of the evaporation material is not limited in this application. In a specific implementation, the evaporation material may be a melting type material or a sublimation type material. For example, when the vapor deposition material is a sublimation type material, the vapor deposition material may be placed directly in the material accommodating chamber 111 or may be placed in the material accommodating chamber 111 via a small crucible (or a sub-crucible). When the evaporation material is a molten material, the evaporation material is placed in the material accommodating chamber 111 via a small crucible.

Embodiments of the evaporation crucible 100 according to the present application will be described in detail below with reference to fig. 1 to 7.

Referring to fig. 1, the evaporation crucible 100 includes a crucible body 10 and a first flow guide plate 20 vertically disposed in the crucible body 10.

Referring to fig. 1 and 2, the crucible main body 10 is vertically arranged, and the crucible main body 10 is a rectangular parallelepiped structure as a whole. The first baffle 20 is a flat plate member with a rectangular structure as a whole, and the first baffle 20 is vertically arranged in the crucible main body 10 and divides the internal space of the crucible main body 10 into a left space and a right space, namely a material accommodating space 110 and a guiding space 120. The material accommodating space 110 is divided into a plurality of independent material accommodating chambers 111. And the guiding-out space 120 is used for receiving the steam from the material accommodating space 110 guided by the flow guiding structure 21 and allowing the steam to be uniformly mixed therein.

As shown in FIG. 2, the crucible main body 10 further includes a plurality of partition walls 11 and a connecting member 12. The partition 11 and the connector 12 are disposed in the material accommodating space 110, and divide the material accommodating space 110 into a plurality of independent material accommodating chambers 111.

Alternatively, a plurality of the material receiving chambers 111 are arranged in a line in a vertical direction. For example, a plurality of the material accommodating chambers 111 are arranged in a line in a vertical direction. More specifically, the plurality of material receiving chambers 111 are sequentially arranged along a vertical direction of the first flow guide plate 20. In other embodiments, the material accommodating chambers 111 may be arranged in multiple rows according to the size of the actual evaporation target, which is not limited in any way in this application.

As shown in fig. 2, the partition plate 11 is a rectangular flat plate-like member. The plurality of partitions 11 are horizontally disposed in the material accommodating space 110 and are arranged at intervals along a vertical direction of the material accommodating space 110 to divide the material accommodating space 110 into a plurality of independent areas. And the connection member 12 is located between the partition 11 and the first baffle 20 to connect the plurality of partitions 11 and the first baffle 20. Obviously, by using the connecting member 12, the sealing property of the material accommodating space 110 can be improved, and the adjacent evaporation materials can be prevented from leaking or depositing. Meanwhile, a plurality of partition plates 11 can be connected, so that the strength of the whole crucible main body 10 is improved.

In detail, for each of the partitions 11, one side of the partition 11 is connected to one side of the connecting member 12, and the remaining sides of the partition 11 are mounted to the inner wall of the crucible main body 10. While the side of the annular connecting piece 12 facing away from the partition 11 is mounted against the first baffle 20.

Wherein the connection manner of the partition plate 11 and the crucible main body 10 is not particularly limited. In this embodiment, the partition plate 11 is welded to the inner circumferential surface of the crucible main body 10. In other embodiments, the partition plate 11 may be integrally formed in the crucible main body 10. Further alternatively, a connecting member may be provided on the side wall of the crucible main body 10, and the partition plate 11 may be placed on the connecting member, or an engaging member may be provided on the crucible main body 10 and the partition plate 11, and the partition plate 11 and the side wall of the crucible main body 10 may be detachably connected by the engaging member.

It will be appreciated that the outer circumferential profile of the connector 12 matches the inner circumferential profile of the material receiving space 110, the fit seal between the two being better. As shown in fig. 4, the connecting member 12 has a rectangular ring shape. As shown in fig. 2, the outer peripheral surface of the annular connecting member 12 is closely attached to the inner peripheral surface of the crucible main body 10 when viewed in a vertical cross section of the crucible main body 10.

Referring to fig. 1 and 4, the baffle 11 is further connected to the first baffle 20. Further, the baffle 11 is detachably connected to the first baffle 20, that is, the first baffle 20 is detachably mounted on the baffle 11. So set up, the first guide plate 20's of being convenient for dismantlement of first guide plate 20 is changed on the one hand, can change in a flexible way and adjust the homogeneity of air current outgoing with the first guide plate 20 of different water conservancy diversion structures 21, on the other hand, the evaporation coating material of still being convenient for pack into in the material accepting chamber 111, convenient to use.

The detachable connection manner of the baffle 11 and the first baffle 20 is not particularly limited. For example, the first baffle 20 is plugged into the partition 11. More specifically, referring to fig. 1 and fig. 4, a first plugging portion 22 protruding from the first baffle 20 is formed on a side of the first baffle 20 facing the material accommodating space 110, and a second plugging portion 1101 is opened on an end surface of the partition plate 11 facing the first baffle 20. In this embodiment, the first plugging portion 22 is a fin, and the second plugging portion 1101 is a slot. In other embodiments, both the fins and slots may be interchangeable.

In the actual evaporation process, since the crucible body 10 is used for containing the evaporation material, it is required to have certain strength and heat conductivity. Therefore, the material of the crucible main body 10 includes one or more of stainless steel, alumina, titanium, and boron nitride. Accordingly, the partition 11 may be made of a heat conductive material so that the material in the material receiving chamber 111 is uniformly heated. For example, the partition plate 11 is formed of the same material as the crucible main body 10, or formed of titanium, tantalum, and a titanium alloy or a tantalum alloy.

As shown in fig. 2, the first diversion plate 20 is provided with a plurality of diversion structures 21 arranged at intervals for guiding the steam in each material accommodating chamber 111 into the guiding-out space 120 located at the other side of the first diversion plate 20. With this arrangement, the sealing and partitioning effects for the material accommodating chamber 111 and the circulation of the steam flow path can be ensured at the same time. Furthermore, the steam flowing through the material accommodating chambers 111 can be adjusted by the diversion structure 21, so that the steam in each material accommodating chamber 111 can be uniformly emitted into the guiding space 120.

As shown in fig. 2, the plurality of flow guiding structures 21 are arranged at intervals along the vertical direction of the first flow guiding plate 20, and the plurality of flow guiding structures 21 correspond to the plurality of material accommodating chambers 111 one to one. That is, each of the material receiving chambers 111 communicates with the guiding space 120 through a flow guide structure 21.

Further, in each material accommodating chamber 111, the diversion structure 21 is located at the top of the material accommodating chamber 111. So set up, can prevent to place the evaporation material on the baffle 11 and spill over via water conservancy diversion structure 21, prevent that evaporation material from piling up.

Referring to fig. 2, in the same material accommodating chamber 111, the area of the flow guide structure 21 is S1, and the area of the first flow guide plate 20 in the material accommodating chamber 111 is S2, then the relationship between S1 and S2 is as follows: S1/S2 is not more than 1/3. By limiting the area of the flow guide structure 21, the uniformity of the outgoing air flow of each material accommodating chamber 111 can be adjusted.

Optionally, the flow guiding structure 21 has one or more through holes, and the planar shape of the through holes is square, circular, linear circular ring or cylindrical.

As shown in fig. 5 and 6, the embodiment of the present application further provides two different implementation structures related to the flow guiding structure 21. Referring to fig. 5, the flow guiding structure 21a is a continuous rectangular through hole, so as to ensure that each material accommodating chamber 111 emits the vapor in the form of a point source, thereby improving the controllability of the emitted airflow. Referring to fig. 6, the flow guiding structure 21b includes a plurality of independent circular through holes, and the circular through holes are arranged on the first flow guiding plate 20 at intervals along the horizontal width direction of the first flow guiding plate 20. The arrangement is such that the uniformity of the air flow in the horizontal direction is better. It should be noted that fig. 5 and 6 are only schematic arrangements of the first baffle 20 described in the present application, and the present application is not limited thereto.

Specifically, the structure of the flow guiding structure 21 may be adjusted such that the steam exiting to the guiding-out space 120 through the flow guiding structure 21 has a downward velocity component, which may cause the steam airflow to be uniformly mixed in the guiding-out space 120.

In a specific implementation, the first flow guiding plate 20 may be an integrally formed component, or may be formed by splicing a plurality of sub-plates. For example, in some embodiments, the first baffle 20 comprises a plurality of individual sub-panels, with a flow directing structure formed on each sub-panel such that each sub-panel is positioned for each material receptacle 111.

As shown in fig. 2, the evaporation crucible 100 further includes a second flow guide plate 30, and the second flow guide plate 30 is vertically disposed at the outlet of the outlet space 120, and is used for guiding the steam in the outlet space 120 out of the evaporation crucible 100. By providing a second baffle 30 at the outlet of the lead-out space 120, the internal air pressure of the lead-out space 120 can be enhanced. In this way, the vapor flows entering the discharge space 120 through the respective independent flow guide structures 21 are diffused and mixed in the discharge space 120, and uniformity of the vapor deposition flow or vapor is improved, thereby further improving uniformity of film formation.

In the evaporation crucible 100 of the present invention, the evaporation vapor enters the lead-out space 120 through the flow guide structure 21, is sufficiently mixed and diffused in the lead-out space 120, and is introduced into the nozzle through the second flow guide 30.

Specifically, the second baffle 30 is provided with a plurality of baffle holes 31 arranged in an array. In this embodiment, the diversion hole 31 is a circular hole. However, it should be noted that the present application does not substantially limit the planar shape of the diversion hole 31. For example, in other embodiments, the plane shape of the diversion hole 31 may be rectangular, square, or oval.

In a specific embodiment, the evaporation crucible 100 further includes a nozzle and a crucible cover. The crucible cover is arranged on the side of the second guide plate 30 far away from the guiding-out space 120, and can fix the second guide plate 30 on the crucible main body 10, and the nozzle is formed on the side of the crucible cover far away from the second guide plate 30.

Wherein the crucible cover and the nozzle can be of an integrated structure or an independent structure. In one embodiment of the present application, the nozzle and the crucible cover are connected as an integral structure. The condition that the sealing is not tight easily in the connection process can be avoided when the nozzle and the crucible cover are connected in a non-integrated structure, so that the connection sealing performance can be ensured. Similarly, the material of the nozzle and the crucible cover can also comprise one or more mixed materials of stainless steel, aluminum oxide, titanium and boron nitride.

Referring to fig. 7, the present application also provides a second embodiment of the evaporation crucible 100. Compared to the evaporation crucible 100 in fig. 1 to 6, the evaporation crucible 100 in fig. 7 further includes the sub-crucible 40, and the embodiment of the material accommodating chamber 111 is also different.

Referring to fig. 7, the sub-crucible 40 is disposed in the material accommodating chamber 111 for accommodating an evaporation material. In this case, the evaporation material may be a melting type material or a sublimation type material.

Accordingly, in order to mount the sub-crucible 40, a stopper 13 is provided in the material accommodating chamber 111. In the present embodiment, the stopper 13 is provided on the partition 11 of the material accommodating chamber 111.

Based on the same design concept, the application also provides an evaporation device, and the evaporation device comprises the evaporation crucible 100.

In a specific embodiment, the vapor deposition apparatus further includes a heating device for heating the material accommodating chamber 111 of the vapor deposition crucible 100 to promote sublimation or vaporization of vapor deposition.

The evaporation crucible and the evaporation apparatus provided in the embodiments of the present application are described in detail above, and the principles and embodiments of the present application are explained herein by applying specific examples, and the description of the above embodiments is only used to help understand the method and the core concept of the present application; meanwhile, for those skilled in the art, according to the idea of the present application, there may be variations in the specific embodiments and the application scope, and in summary, the content of the present specification should not be construed as a limitation to the present application.

Claims

1. An evaporation crucible, comprising:

a crucible main body; and the number of the first and second groups,

2. The evaporation crucible according to claim 1, wherein the plurality of material holding chambers are arranged in a vertical row.

3. An evaporation crucible according to claim 1, wherein the flow area of the flow guide structure in the same material accommodating chamber is S1, and the area of the first flow guide plate in the material accommodating chamber is S2, then S1 and S2 satisfy the following relationship: S1/S2 is not more than 1/3.

4. The evaporation crucible according to claim 1, wherein in each of the material accommodating chambers, the flow guide structure is provided near the top of the material accommodating chamber.

5. An evaporation crucible according to claim 1, wherein the flow guide structure has one or more through-holes having a shape of a square, a circle, a linear ring or a cylinder.

6. The evaporation crucible according to claim 1, further comprising a second baffle plate, wherein the second baffle plate is provided with a plurality of baffle holes arranged in an array;

7. The evaporation crucible according to claim 1, wherein the crucible main body further comprises a plurality of partition plates and a connecting member;

8. The evaporation crucible according to claim 7, wherein a plurality of first insertion portions are provided on a side of the first flow guide facing the material holding space, and a second insertion portion is provided on a side of each of the partition plates adjacent to the first flow guide;

the first insertion part is in insertion fit with the second insertion part.

9. An evaporation crucible according to claim 1, wherein at least one stopper is installed in each material holding chamber, and the stopper is used for fixing the compact crucible.

10. An evaporation apparatus comprising the evaporation crucible according to any one of claims 1 to 9.