Classifications

• • C—CHEMISTRY; METALLURGY
  • C23—COATING METALLIC MATERIAL; COATING MATERIAL WITH METALLIC MATERIAL; CHEMICAL SURFACE TREATMENT; DIFFUSION TREATMENT OF METALLIC MATERIAL; COATING BY VACUUM EVAPORATION, BY SPUTTERING, BY ION IMPLANTATION OR BY CHEMICAL VAPOUR DEPOSITION, IN GENERAL; INHIBITING CORROSION OF METALLIC MATERIAL OR INCRUSTATION IN GENERAL
  • C23C—COATING METALLIC MATERIAL; COATING MATERIAL WITH METALLIC MATERIAL; SURFACE TREATMENT OF METALLIC MATERIAL BY DIFFUSION INTO THE SURFACE, BY CHEMICAL CONVERSION OR SUBSTITUTION; COATING BY VACUUM EVAPORATION, BY SPUTTERING, BY ION IMPLANTATION OR BY CHEMICAL VAPOUR DEPOSITION, IN GENERAL
  • C23C14/00—Coating by vacuum evaporation, by sputtering or by ion implantation of the coating forming material
  • C23C14/22—Coating by vacuum evaporation, by sputtering or by ion implantation of the coating forming material characterised by the process of coating
  • C23C14/56—Apparatus specially adapted for continuous coating; Arrangements for maintaining the vacuum, e.g. vacuum locks
  • C23C14/562—Apparatus specially adapted for continuous coating; Arrangements for maintaining the vacuum, e.g. vacuum locks for coating elongated substrates
• • C—CHEMISTRY; METALLURGY
  • C23—COATING METALLIC MATERIAL; COATING MATERIAL WITH METALLIC MATERIAL; CHEMICAL SURFACE TREATMENT; DIFFUSION TREATMENT OF METALLIC MATERIAL; COATING BY VACUUM EVAPORATION, BY SPUTTERING, BY ION IMPLANTATION OR BY CHEMICAL VAPOUR DEPOSITION, IN GENERAL; INHIBITING CORROSION OF METALLIC MATERIAL OR INCRUSTATION IN GENERAL
  • C23C—COATING METALLIC MATERIAL; COATING MATERIAL WITH METALLIC MATERIAL; SURFACE TREATMENT OF METALLIC MATERIAL BY DIFFUSION INTO THE SURFACE, BY CHEMICAL CONVERSION OR SUBSTITUTION; COATING BY VACUUM EVAPORATION, BY SPUTTERING, BY ION IMPLANTATION OR BY CHEMICAL VAPOUR DEPOSITION, IN GENERAL
  • C23C16/00—Chemical coating by decomposition of gaseous compounds, without leaving reaction products of surface material in the coating, i.e. chemical vapour deposition [CVD] processes
  • C23C16/44—Chemical coating by decomposition of gaseous compounds, without leaving reaction products of surface material in the coating, i.e. chemical vapour deposition [CVD] processes characterised by the method of coating
  • C23C16/54—Apparatus specially adapted for continuous coating
  • C23C16/545—Apparatus specially adapted for continuous coating for coating elongated substrates
• • H—ELECTRICITY
  • H01—ELECTRIC ELEMENTS
  • H01J—ELECTRIC DISCHARGE TUBES OR DISCHARGE LAMPS
  • H01J37/00—Discharge tubes with provision for introducing objects or material to be exposed to the discharge, e.g. for the purpose of examination or processing thereof
  • H01J37/32—Gas-filled discharge tubes
  • H01J37/32431—Constructional details of the reactor
  • H01J37/32733—Means for moving the material to be treated
  • H01J37/32752—Means for moving the material to be treated for moving the material across the discharge
  • H01J37/32761—Continuous moving
  • H01J37/3277—Continuous moving of continuous material

Definitions

• the present invention relates to devices for vacuum coating roll substrates, mainly polymer films and metal foils of considerable width and length.
• the material length in a roll usually provides a fairly long continuous process in order to reach a highly effective output of the equipment.
• Machines for vacuum coating roll substrates are used quite broadly in various industries. They are traditionally widely used for the producing packaging and decorative materials and exploited more and more frequently in high-technology industries for the manufacturing various products for electronics, electrical engineering, communications facilities etc. In recent years intensive works have been carried out with the aim of working out solar energy converters on the basis of using such equipment.
• High technology industries bring forward more severe requirements to the deposited layers qualities, while the number of layers in the coating structure increases, the assortment of deposited materials expands. Often composition of these materials is very complicated and they are very sensitive to mechanical and thermal stress during vacuum processing. It is also very important to prevent damage of the substrate side to be coated (front side).
• the prior art apparatus (20) comprises an unwinding roll (21) of initial material (substrate), system of guide rollers (22), substrate (23), source of deposited material (26) and rewinding roll (27) of ready-made product.
• the system of the guide rollers is arranged so as to prevent the contact of the substrate front side (24) with the mentioned rollers during processing. Thereby damage of the substrate front side (24) is prevented, because there is no friction of this side against the surface of the rollers.
• the yield of vacuum machines for coating thin long-length roll substrates is usually limited, because such substrates and especially deposited multi-component coatings on them are subject to damages during the technological process.
• the cooling device can contain more cooling units, in this case the loop winding device is installed between each pair of them.
• each cooling unit is manufactured in accordance with known art as a truncated circular segment. The segment radius is considerable in order to provide maximal surface of the substrate contact with the segment working surface.
• the cooling units can also be manufactured as cooling drums, whose use for cooling substrates is well known in the vacuum deposition technique. For any design of the cooling units their surface of contact with the substrate and consequently the cooling efficiency are limited by the substrate tension limit during its winding along the significant surface of contact.
• the force of the substrate and cooling surface contact is determined both by the substrate tension and the radius of the curvilinear cooling surface.
• the contact force goes down if the said curvilinear surface radius is increased.
• the applicant's practice test ifies to the fact that an increase of the radius above 10 m has no positive effect.
• the offered design removes such limitation.
• the introduction of several cooling units provides expansion of the technological capabilities of the equipment, because it allows depositing separate layers of the multi-component coating in different zones, while the known principle of the substrate winding without contact of its front surface with the winding system elements is retained.
• Fig. 1 shows the preferred embodiment of the invention, where two cooling units in the form of truncated segments and one loop winding device are used.
• Fig. 2 shows the embodiment of the invention, where three cooling units in the form of drums and two loop winding devices are used.
• Fig. 3a, 3b show the loop winding device.
• Fig. 4 shows a turning roller
• Fig. 5 shows a fragment of the turning roller and a device (17) of returning movable strips of the roller into the initial position.
• Fig. 6 shows the prior art technical solution in accordance with the Japanese laid-open application 08325731 , where the front side of the substrate does not come into contact i f with the guide rollers of the winding system.
• the apparatus comprises one or several deposition zones (2).
• the roll substrate (3) is wound from an unwinding roll (4) to a rewinding roll (5) along guide rollers (6) within the said deposition zones.
• Each deposition zone may be located in a separate vacuum chamber or in separate compartments of a common vacuum chamber.
• the device of the substrate cooling comprises two or several cooling units in the form of the truncated segment (pos. 7, Fig. 1) or the drum (pos. 8, Fig. 2), whose design is well known and widely used in this field of technique.
• the winding device comprises one or several loop winding devices (9) and each of them is installed between the cooling units.
• Fig. 1 shows the embodiment of the invention with two cooling units in the form of the truncated segments of the diameter from 1 to 10 m, while the loop winding device (9) is installed between them.
• Fig. 2 shows the embodiment of the invention with three cooling units in the form of the drums, while two loop winding devices (9) are installed between them.
• the apparatus in accordance with the suggested invention can comprise more cooling units and loop winding devices, but the loop winding device is installed between each pair of the cooling units.
• Fig. 3 shows the loop winding device, which comprises an input turning roller (11), a central turning roller (12) and an output turning roller (13).
• the winding system guide rollers (6 ) next to the loop winding device are also shown.
• the guide rollers axes are perpendicular to the main direction of the substrate transportation from the unwinding roll to the rewinding roll.
• FIG. 4 shows a possible design of the turning rollers (11) or (12).
• the design prevents sliding friction of the substrate on the surfaces of the mentioned rollers. Such effect is reached by the known method of equipping the outside surfaces of the rollers with movable strips (16) and a device (17) of the strips returning into the initial position.
• the deposition apparatus in accordance with Fig. 1 is the preferred embodiment of the invention. It comprises two cooling units (7) in the form of the truncated segments, two deposition zones and one loop winding device (9).
• the suggested apparatus operates in the following way.
• the substrate (3) is transported from the unwinding roll (4) along the guide rollers (6) and the curvilinear surface of the first cooling unit (7), where the substrate is coated with the deposition source (10).
• the deposition source 10
• Known PVD sources magnet sputtering devices, thermal evaporators etc.
• CVD chemical vapor deposition
• PECVD PECVD
• the substrate is directed along the guide rollers (6) to the loop winding device (9), which is installed above the top level of the cooling unit in order to provide necessary tension of the substrate and its optimal contact with the curvilinear surface of the cooling unit.
• the guide roller (6 , Fig.
• the input turning roller (11) are installed in a single plane and the axis of the input roller (11) is turned relative the main direction of the substrate transportation, as a result the substrate movement direction in the loop winding device is changed in accordance with the angle of turning of the input roller (11).
• the substrate is directed from the roller (11) to the central turning roller (12), whose axis is perpendicular relative the new direction of the substrate movement, which was set by the roller (11). At that the roller (12) is in a single plane with the roller (11).
• the substrate turns around the roller (12) and comes to the output turning roller (13), whose axis is turned relative the main direction of the substrate transportation by the same angle as the axis of the roller (11), while the roller (13) is in a single plane with the roller (12) and the next guide roller (6 ) of the winding system. While turning around the turning roller (13) the substrate changes the direction and again is moving along the main transportation direction with a certain transverse displacement, which is described below.
• the substrate After turning the substrate arrives to the second cooling unit, where the next layer (layers) is (are) deposited, and then it is wound into the rewinding roll (ready-made product roll) (5).
• centring device of a known design by mounting it between the loop winding device and the next cooling unit.
• the centring device is integrated in the loop winding device, Fig. (3B).
• an actuating mechanism (not shown) provides a slight turning of a frame (14) and all turning rollers, which are mounted on this frame. In such a way the loop winding device corrects the substrate movement direction by a slight angle with simultaneous turning of the turning rollers around the centre (15).
• each outside surface of the roller comprises narrow strips (16), as shown in Fig. (4).
• the strips are easily movable over bearings (not shown) in axial direction.
• the substrate is displaced in axial direction in tangency with the strips of the turning rollers surfaces and conveys the strips in the same direction by the distance, which is shown in Fig. (4).
• the strips are released and return into the initial position by the device of returning (17).
• a spring or rubber tape may be used as basic components of the device of returning.
• the suggested apparatus provides depositing high-quality coatings without contact with the winding system rollers, in many cases a means is desirable for retention of the high qualities during the material rewinding into the ready-made product roll. It may be provided by known methods of the coating protection, e.g. using an interleaf, as Fig. 1 shows.
• the interleaf (18) is supplied from a roll (19) and wound together with the substrate into the ready-made product roll (5).
• the suggested apparatus provides highly productive coating comparatively wide polymer films, metal foils and similar substrates, while necessary quality is also provided for the composite coatings.
• the possibility of processing fairly long roll materials provides uninterrupted operation of the deposition apparatus during long operation cycles thus ensuring high productivity of the equipment.

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• Chemical & Material Sciences (AREA)
• Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
• Chemical Kinetics & Catalysis (AREA)
• Materials Engineering (AREA)
• Mechanical Engineering (AREA)
• Metallurgy (AREA)
• Organic Chemistry (AREA)
• General Chemical & Material Sciences (AREA)
• Physics & Mathematics (AREA)
• Plasma & Fusion (AREA)
• Analytical Chemistry (AREA)
• Physical Vapour Deposition (AREA)

Applications Claiming Priority (2)

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• 2009
  • 2009-02-03 LV LVP-09-16A patent/LV14196B/lv unknown
• 2010
  • 2010-02-01 JP JP2011549084A patent/JP2012516946A/ja active Pending
  • 2010-02-01 WO PCT/LV2010/000001 patent/WO2010090504A2/en active Application Filing
  • 2010-02-01 EP EP10707142A patent/EP2393958A2/de not_active Withdrawn

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