JP2000009405A - Method and instrument for measuring interval between parallel flat plates - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a method by which the interval between parallel flat plates can be measured easily through such a simple operation as rotation. SOLUTION: In the method for measuring the interval between parallel flat plates, the interval between parallel flat plates is measured in such a way that a bar-like pipe having a prescribed length is rotated around a fixed center of rotation so that the radius of gyration of the front end of the piece may become constant (L) and the angles of rotation (θ1 and θ2) of the front end of the piece until the front end comes into contact with the lower surface of the upper flat plate and the uppers surface of the lower flat plate (e.g. the upper electrode 4 and the lower electrode 5) from a horizontal state are detected. Then the interval between the flat plates is measured based on the detected angles of rotation.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a method for measuring the distance between parallel plates and a measuring instrument therefor. It relates to a measuring instrument.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art As an example of a conventional electrode spacing measuring instrument,
An electrode spacing measuring instrument used in a parallel plate type plasma CVD apparatus will be described. FIG. 6 is a perspective view showing an electrode spacing measuring instrument, and FIG. 7 is an explanatory view showing a measuring method thereof. As shown in FIG. 6, the electrode gap measuring instrument 6 has a short columnar base 1 having a through hole 1a in the center, a pin 2 inserted through the through hole 1a, and an arbitrary pin 2. It is composed of a pin fixing screw 3 fixedly held at a position.

[0003] The measuring method using the above-mentioned electrode spacing measuring instrument is as follows. Here, the case where the distance between the upper electrode 4 and the lower electrode 5 (the distance in the state of FIG. 7B), which is the distance between the parallel plates provided in the reaction chamber 7 of the plasma processing apparatus, is measured. explain.

(1) First, the electrodes 4, 5 facing the instrument 6
(FIG. 7A). (2) Raise the lower electrode 5 and push down the pin 2 of the instrument. (FIG. 7 (b)). (3) Lower electrode 5 is lowered. Since the pin 2 of the device is kept pressed down, the device is taken out, and the distance from the head of the pin 2 to the bottom surface 1b of the base 1 is measured with a caliper.
The electrode spacing in (b) can be measured.

[0005]

However, the conventional electrode spacing measuring instrument has the following problems. (1) When the temperature inside the reaction chamber 7 is high, the equipment must be made of a material that can withstand the high temperature. Further, when taking out the device 6, it is dangerous because the temperature is high. (2) The instrument 6 must be placed in a stable state (measurement cannot be made accurately if there is a step). (3) Depending on the height of the base 1 of the instrument 6, a narrow interval cannot be measured. That is, an interval smaller than the height of the base 1 cannot be measured. (4) The instrument 6 deteriorates in a reactive gas atmosphere.

An object of the present invention is to solve the problems (1) to (4) of the prior art and to provide an electrode spacing measuring instrument capable of easily measuring the spacing between parallel plates. is there.

[0007]

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, a parallel plate interval measuring method according to the present invention is characterized in that a bar-shaped piece (bent portion 10a) having a predetermined length is fixed between parallel plates. With respect to the rotation center thus set, the tip is rotated so that the rotation radius of the tip becomes constant (L).
And the rotation angles (θ ₁ , θ) until they contact the plane of the lower electrode 5)
₂ ) is detected, and the length of the interval between the parallel plates is measured based on the detected rotation angle.

A rod-shaped piece having a rotation radius L at the tip is set so as to be horizontal to the electrode surface, and the rotation angles until the tip of the rod-shaped piece contacts the upper electrode and the lower electrode are θ ₁ and θ ₂ , respectively. The interval H between the parallel plates can be determined as follows. Parallel plate interval H = L × (sin θ ₁ ° + sin θ ₂
°)

Further, the parallel plate spacing measuring instrument according to the present invention has a handle 10b, a bent portion 10a having a tip bent with respect to the handle 10b, and a support for supporting the handle 10b. A rod-shaped support portion 10c;
Is inserted between the parallel plates so as to be parallel (horizontal), and the rod-shaped support portion 10c is rotatably supported in the vicinity of the parallel plates. A parallel plate interval measuring instrument configured to rotate a tip of a 10a on a constant radius of rotation in a plane perpendicular to the axis, wherein the bent portion 10a is moved from a horizontal state to upper and lower planes of the parallel plate. Rotation angles θ ₁ and θ ₂ until contact are detected by detecting a shaft rotation angle of the rod-shaped support portion, and a length between the parallel plates is measured based on the detected rotation angle. It becomes something.

In the embodiment, the parallel plate interval measuring instrument 10 and an angle detecting section (gear stopper 24, gear (large) 2) for detecting a rotation angle of the rod-shaped support section 10c are provided.
1, a gear (small) 22 and a potentiometer 23). Further, a cooling pipe 9 is provided inside the rod-shaped support portion 10c of the parallel plate interval measuring instrument 10, and cooling water is circulated in the pipe 9.

[0011]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings, taking an example in which the present invention is applied to a parallel plate type plasma CVD apparatus. FIG. 1 is a plan view (a) and a side view (b) showing an instrument. This instrument 10
1 has a simple structure in which a cooling pipe 9 is attached to an aluminum rod whose tip is bent at 90 degrees in an L-shape, as shown in FIG. The device 10 has a bent portion 1 having a length L.
0a, a handle 10b following the bent portion 10a, and a handle 10b
And a rod-shaped support portion 10c following the
A cooling pipe 9 is inserted into 0c.

FIG. 2 is a view showing how this device is attached to a reaction chamber and how to use it. A hole 7b is provided in the side wall 7a of the reaction chamber 7, and a flange 11 and a flange 12 are attached. The flanges 11 and 12 have holes 11a and 1 respectively.
2a is provided, and the device 10 is inserted through the holes 11a and 12a to the middle of the rod-shaped support portion 10c. The device 10 is rotatably supported in these holes. Markers are provided at the periphery of the hole 12a of the flange 12 and at a predetermined position of the aluminum rod inserted and supported in the hole 12a so that the bent portion can be seen to be horizontal between the upper and lower poles, or described later. Such a potentiometer is provided. Also, the side wall 7a
O-rings 13, 14, and 15 for sealing are provided between the flange 11 and the flange 11, between the flange 11 and the flange 12, and between the flange 12 and the rod-shaped support portion 10c of the instrument.

From the end of the rod-shaped support 10c, the rod-shaped support 1
Cooling water is circulated in the pipe 9 inserted in the
Even when the temperature in the reaction chamber is high, the measurement can be performed by preventing the temperature of the apparatus from becoming high.

Hereinafter, a measuring method between the electrodes will be described with reference to FIG. (1) After mounting the device 10 so that the bent portion 10 a is horizontal, the device 10 is rotated to make contact with the upper electrode 4. This contact point is used as a reference. (2) The interval measuring instrument 10 is rotated, and the tip of the bent portion 10a is brought into contact with the upper and lower electrodes 4 and 5. At this time, the angles θ ₁ and θ ₂ rotated until the interval measuring instrument 10 comes into contact with the upper and lower electrodes 4 and 5 are recorded. (3) Assuming that the length of the L portion of the interval measuring instrument 10 is L (mm), the electrode interval is obtained as follows. (4) By performing the above operation while changing the insertion amount of the tool 10, that is, changing the support position of the rod-shaped support portion 10c, it is possible to measure a plurality of electrode intervals, and to know the distribution of the interval length on the line. it can.

Electrode spacing = L × (sin θ ₁ ° + sin θ ₂ °)

FIG. 4 shows a method of detecting the rotation angles θ ₁ and θ ₂ when high accuracy is required.
This will be described with reference to FIG. As shown in FIG. 4, a gear (large) 21 is fixed to the distance measuring instrument 10 using a gear stopper 24. A gear (small) 22 is meshed with the gear 21 and a potentiometer 23 is attached to the gear 22 so that the rotation of the interval measuring instrument 10 is transmitted to the potentiometer 23 through the gears 21 and 22.

In such a configuration, when the potentiometer 23 rotates, the output voltage changes. That is, since the rotation angle of the interval measuring instrument 10 can be measured as a change in the output voltage of the potentiometer 23, the rotation angle can be accurately determined.

As a material of the device 10, for example, aluminum was used as a material for preventing deterioration due to gas.
When H ₄ , N ₂ O, N ₂ , C ₂ F ₆ , or O ₂ gas is used in the process, the aluminum material of the fixture is subjected to alumite treatment. As described above, the electrode interval of the parallel plate plasma CVD apparatus can be calculated from the rotation angle by rotating the interval measuring instrument 10 from outside the reaction chamber.

FIG. 5 shows a parallel plate distance measuring instrument 10 described above.
This figure shows an embodiment in which the parallelism of parallel plates and the distribution of parallel plate intervals are measured using, for example, three A, 10B and 10C. In this case, each device 10A, 10B, 10C
Are attached to the flange 11A attached to the side wall 7a of the reaction chamber 7 and the flanges 12A, 12B, 12C attached to the flange 11A. Also in this case, the appropriate places corresponding to FIG. 1 are O-rings 13A, 14A to 14C, and 15A to 15C, respectively.
Sealed by And each appliance 10A, 10B,
The parallelism of the parallel plates and the distribution state of the parallel plate intervals are measured by measuring the plate interval at each position while moving 10C in the length direction.

[0020]

As is apparent from the above description, the method for measuring the interval between parallel plates according to the present invention uses the rod-shaped piece having a predetermined length between the parallel plates with respect to the rotation center whose position is fixed. The tip is rotated so that the rotation radius of the tip is constant, the rotation angle from when the tip abuts on one plane of the parallel plate to the other plane is detected, and the parallelism is determined based on the detected rotation angle. Since the length between the flat plates is measured, the parallel plate interval measuring instrument according to the present invention further comprises a handle, a bent portion having a tip bent with respect to the handle, and the handle. A rod-shaped support portion for supporting the rod-shaped support portion, wherein the bent portion is inserted between the parallel plates, and the support portion is rotatably supported in the vicinity of the space between the parallel plates, and rotates the rod-shaped support portion. Thereby, the tip of the bent portion is perpendicular to the axis. The rotation angle from the one flat surface of the parallel plate to the other flat plate is detected by detecting the rotation angle of the support portion. By detecting
Since the length between the parallel plates is measured based on the detected rotation angle, the interval between the parallel plates can be measured by a simple operation of inserting the interval measuring instrument between the parallel plates and rotating. Thus, there is an effect that the handling and use method is simple, and the interval between the parallel plates can be easily measured.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a plan view (a) and a side view (b) showing a parallel plate spacing measuring instrument according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a plan view showing an attached state of a parallel plate interval measuring instrument.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram showing the principle of interval measurement.

FIG. 4 is a side view showing an example of highly accurate rotation angle measurement.

FIG. 5 is a plan view showing distribution state measurement of a parallel plate interval.

FIG. 6 is a perspective view showing a conventional parallel plate spacing measuring instrument.

FIG. 7 is an explanatory view showing a conventional parallel plate interval measuring method.

[Explanation of symbols]

 Reference Signs List 4 upper electrode 5 lower electrode 7 reaction chamber 9 pipe 10 parallel plate interval measuring instrument 10a bent portion 10b handle portion 10c rod-shaped support portion

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A bar-shaped piece having a predetermined length between parallel flat plates is rotated with respect to a rotation center having a fixed position so that a rotation radius at a tip thereof is constant, and the tip is formed of the parallel plate. A parallel plate interval measuring method, wherein a rotation angle from one plane to contact with the other plane is detected, and the length between the parallel plates is measured based on the detected rotation angle. 2. A handle portion, a bent portion having a tip bent with respect to the handle portion, and a rod-shaped support portion for supporting the handle portion, wherein the bent portion is formed between parallel flat plates. The support portion is supported rotatably in the vicinity of between the parallel plates,
An instrument for measuring a rotation distance between parallel plates, wherein the tip of the bent part is rotated on a constant radius of rotation in a plane perpendicular to the axis by rotating the rod-shaped support part. The rotation angle until the tip of the curved portion abuts from one plane to the other plane of the parallel plate is detected by detecting the axis rotation angle of the support section, and based on the detected rotation angle, A parallel plate spacing measuring instrument for measuring the length between parallel plates.