JP2000149253A - Disk substrate holder for film forming - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide such a disk substrate holder for film forming that has been improved in assembly and maintenance for adjustment through reduction in the number of parts and places for screwing, and that also has been improved so that the disk substrate is prevented from falling off easily during the transportation. SOLUTION: The holder 1 is constituted such that the holder body 2 is equipped with plural pieces of disk holding lugs 4, which are placed side by side in accordance with the contour of the disk substrate 11, and a horizontal guide 5 which is arranged on the left and right side and which is also used as a shield, and that they are placed on the lug in a sputter film forming processing so as to hold the disk substrate in a vertical attitude. In this case, with the holder body made of an integrated aluminum die-cast product, lug attaching seat is formed each on the left and right end of the circular-arcuate upper edge of the body and on the inner left and right side of a recess 2b formed in the center of the upper edge; simultaneously, with an attaching leg 2a formed on the lower part of the body, the horizontal guide member is designed to have no screw binding and engagedly supported with the holder body through a bayonet joint for putting an engaging groove 14b against a supporting pin 14a.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

The present invention relates to a holder used as a jig for holding a disk substrate in a sputtering process for forming a magnetic layer of a magnetic disk recording medium.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art As is well known, a magnetic disk recording medium described above has a nickel-phosphorous underlayer formed on an aluminum disk substrate by an electroless plating method, and is further polished and washed, and then sputtered in a film forming process. A Cr intermediate layer, a Co alloy magnetic layer, and an amorphous carbon protective layer are sequentially formed by a method, and a fluorocarbon lubricating layer is formed on the outermost surface of the medium by a spin coating method or the like.

At present, an in-line type sputtering apparatus is used in the step of forming the magnetic layer, and a disk substrate is continuously processed by the automatic operation thereof.
The sputtering apparatus mounts the above-described disk substrate holder together with the carrier on a conveyor line laid between the substrate mounting stage and the vacuum chamber arranged through a vacuum chamber arranged in accordance with a film forming process, and mounts the disk substrates one by one on this holder. Loading by the handling operation of the robot, and in each chamber on the way of movement, a Cr intermediate layer, C
An o-alloy magnetic layer and an amorphous carbon protective layer are sequentially formed by sputtering.

Next, FIG. 3 (a) shows a conventional structure of a disk substrate holder employed in the in-line type sputtering apparatus.
To (c). That is, the holder 1 of the conventional structure has a holder body (material: aluminum) 2 having a mounting leg 2a at the lower end.
And a pair of claw mounting bases (material: stainless steel) 3 which are separately mounted on the upper part of the holder main body 2 and left and right, and each claw mounting base 3
A total of four disc holding claw pieces (material: stainless steel) 4 fixed one by one to the left and right end surfaces of the disc, and a shield and horizontal guide (material: stainless steel) that is fixed to the left and right sides of the holder body 2 and rises upward 5 and a lower shield (material: stainless steel) 6 attached to the front and rear surfaces of the holder main body base to prevent the attachment leg 2a from being unnecessarily formed into a film. It is fastened and fixed at 10 to 10. Further, as shown in FIG. 3 (c), the claw piece 4 has a V-shaped tip, and has a base formed with an insertion groove 4b for the fastening screw 7 formed therein.

In order to assemble the holder 1 having the above-described structure, first, the disk holding claw pieces 4 are fastened and fixed to both ends of each claw mounting base 3 with screws 7, and the lateral guide 5 is further fixed with screws 8.
Then, the claw mount 3 is attached to the holder body 2 and fixed with the screw 9, and then the lower shield 6 is fixed to the holder body 2 with the screw 10.

[0006] With respect to the holder 1 having such a configuration, the disk substrate 11 is loaded from above by the handling operation of the robot, placed on the four claw pieces 4 arranged on the circumference, and is held in a vertical posture independently. Sputter film formation is performed on the substrate surface in each chamber while moving on the conveyor line in this state, and the disk substrate 11 is unloaded from the holder jig 1 at the end of the film formation process.

When the holder 1 is used repeatedly in a film forming process, a film is formed by sputtering on the surface of the holder itself. Therefore, as a maintenance of the holder, the holder 1 and the carrier were collectively removed from the sputtering apparatus at a rate of about once a week, disassembled and cleaned by a worker's manual, assembled, and adjusted. The above is used again by incorporating it into the sputtering apparatus.

[0008]

From the experience of mounting the above-described conventional disk substrate holder in a sputtering apparatus and actually operating it, it has been found that there are the following problems. There is a strong demand for improvement measures from the site. That is, (1) The conventional holder structure shown in FIG. 3 has a large number of parts and many screw tightening points, and therefore, a long working time is required for assembling and adjusting the holder during maintenance. (2) During the operation of the sputtering apparatus, there is often a trouble that the disk substrate drops from the holder during the transportation due to a cause other than a defective assembly adjustment of the holder.

The inventors of the present invention have investigated the cause of the trouble, and have found that the cause is as follows. That is, in the conventional structure, members such as the stainless steel claw mount 3 and the lateral guide 5 are fixed to the aluminum holder body 2 by screw fastening. For this reason, when the holder 1 is heated to a film forming temperature in the sputtering process, a thermal stress is applied to a joint between parts due to a difference in thermal expansion due to a difference in material between aluminum and stainless steel, and heat is applied to this portion. Deformation occurs, and a slight shift occurs between the four board holding claw pieces 4 to be aligned on the circumference. As a result, the support of the disk substrate 11 loaded on the holder 1 becomes unstable during the operation of the sputtering apparatus, and a transfer trouble occurs in which the disk 11 easily falls off the holder 1 even with a slight vibration applied from the conveyor line. Easier to do.

[0010] On the other hand, when the above-mentioned trouble of substrate dropout occurs during the operation of the in-line type sputtering apparatus, the sputter apparatus during the automatic operation is stopped, and the troublesome setup procedure described below is performed. Restart the sputtering equipment. First, the inside of the vacuum chamber is set to the atmospheric pressure, the door is opened, and the substrate falling into the chamber is removed. Next, after the holder from which the substrate has dropped is readjusted, the chamber is evacuated and returned to a predetermined vacuum pressure. Subsequently, after loading a sample of the disk substrate and confirming its transport state, the automatic operation is restarted. In this case, it takes a long time of about 5 hours to start up the sputter apparatus that has been stopped according to the above procedure to a normal operation state. Affect.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and an object of the present invention is to solve the above-mentioned problems, to reduce the number of parts and the number of screw fastening points, to improve maintainability of assembling and adjustment, and to improve transportation during transportation. Another object of the present invention is to provide a disk substrate holder for film formation improved so that the disk substrate does not easily fall off.

[0012]

To achieve the above object, according to the present invention, there is provided a disk substrate holder for mounting and holding a disk substrate in a vertical position in a sputtering film forming step, wherein a disk is mounted on a holder body. A plurality of disk holding claw pieces arranged side by side according to the outer shape of the board and a horizontal guide member serving also as a shield disposed on the left and right sides of the disk board are attached. The holder is configured to be held in a vertical position, a claw mounting seat surface is formed on the holder body, and a disk holding claw piece is screwed to the seat surface and directly fixed, and the horizontal guide member is It is configured to be locked and supported in a non-fastening manner with respect to the holder body (Claim 1), and specifically configured in the following manner.

(1) The holder main body is made of an aluminum-integrated die-cast product, and claw mounting seat surfaces are respectively provided on left and right ends of an upper edge of the main body having an arc shape and left and right side surfaces in a recess formed in the center of the upper edge. At the same time, the mounting leg is formed at the lower part of the main body (claim 2).

(2) The holder body according to the above (1) is provided with through-holes formed between the left and right end faces of the holder body corresponding to the claw mounting seat surfaces in the recesses, and a disc mounted on the seat surface. The holding claw can be screwed by a driver operation from the left and right sides of the holder body (claim 3).

(3) The lateral guide member is detachably locked and supported on the holder main body via a bayonet joint comprising a support pin and an engagement groove, and the expansion of the horizontal guide member causes the holder main body to expand at the film forming temperature in the sputtering process. No thermal stress is applied (claim 4).

(4) A concave groove into which the chamfer portion of the disk substrate is fitted is formed at the center of the distal end of the disk holding claw piece having a V-shaped distal end so as to enhance the stability of the attitude of supporting the disk substrate. (Claim 5).

According to the above configuration, the number of parts is reduced by the amount of the claw mounting base being omitted as compared with the holder having the conventional structure shown in FIG. 3, and the horizontal guide member is moved from the screw type to the holder body. Replacing the locking support structure using bayonet joints has significantly reduced the number of screw fastening points, which has enabled a significant reduction in the time required for assembling and adjusting the holder, as well as the time required for the work. Become. Also, the holder body is an aluminum integrated die cast product,
In addition, the horizontal guide member (material: stainless steel) is detachably latched and supported in a non-fastened state, so that the difference in thermal expansion between the horizontal guide member and the holder body does not interfere with each other even when the film is heated to the film forming temperature. Thus, the disk substrate mounted on the claw pieces can be stably held in a vertical position while preventing undesired thermal deformation of the holder main body and occurrence of displacement between the claw pieces for disk holding due to this. Further, in addition to the above-described configuration, a concave groove in which the chamfer portion of the disk substrate is fitted is formed at the center of the tip of the disk holding claw surface, so that the support stability of the disk substrate is further enhanced, and the film forming process is improved. The trouble that the disk substrate falls off from the holder during transportation can be effectively prevented, and the reliability is improved.

[0018]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the embodiments shown in FIGS. In the drawings of the embodiment, the same members corresponding to those in FIG. 3 are denoted by the same reference numerals, and description thereof will be omitted.

First, FIG. 1 shows an assembly structure of the entire holder. That is, the holder 1 of the illustrated embodiment is a total of four holders 2 attached to the holder main body 2 so as to be aligned on the periphery according to the outer shape of the disk substrate 11 and the leg-equipped holder main body 2 as an aluminum-integrated die-cast product. Disk holding claw piece 4
A claw holder 12 of the claw piece 4, a lateral guide 5 serving as a shield, which is disposed on the left and right sides of the holder main body 2 and is disposed on the left and right sides of the holder main body 2, and covers a lower portion of the holder main body 2. It consists of an assembly with a lower shield 6 mounted on its front and rear surfaces.

Here, the holder main body 2 has the mounting leg 2
a are integrally formed, and the nail pieces 4 are respectively attached to the right and left ends of the upper edge having an arc shape and the left and right side faces of the recess 2b formed at the center of the upper edge. A seat surface is formed. Then, screw holes are formed in the claw mounting seat surfaces at both ends of the holder body 2, and the claw pieces 4 are formed therein.
, And fastened and fixed with the screw 7 via the claw retainer 12. On the other hand, a through-bolt hole 2c is formed obliquely between the claw mounting seat surface formed on the left and right side surface inside the recess 2b and the notch recess formed on the left and right end surface of the holder body. The through bolt 1 is inserted into the through bolt hole 2c from the left and right sides of the holder body 2 with the claw pieces 4 attached to the seat surface.
3 fastens and is fixed via the claw presser 12. By providing the through bolt holes 2c, the holder body 2
Can be bolted from the side of the claw piece 4 mounted inside the narrow recess 2b using a screwdriver from the side.

On the other hand, a pair of upper and lower support pins 14a implanted on the left and right side edges of the holder main body 2 are not screwed to the holder main body 2 (see FIG. 3). Bayonet joint 14 for hooking and stopping an L-shaped engagement groove 14b formed in the lateral guide 5
It is detachably locked and supported via the.

At the tip of the claw piece 4, a concave groove 4c is formed at the center of the V-shaped groove 4a, into which the chamfer portion of the disk substrate 11 fits, as shown in FIG. The opening angle θ1 of the V-shaped groove 4a is set to about 120 °, the opening angle θ2 of the concave groove 4c is set to about 90 °, and the groove width d of the bottom surface is set to be slightly wider than the chamfer portion of the disk substrate 11. Have been.

The holder 1 having the above structure does not have the claw mount 3 (see FIG. 3) as compared with the holder having the conventional structure shown in FIG.
In addition, the number of parts and the number of screwing points are reduced by the amount by which the lateral guide 5 is fixed by the bayonet joint 14, so that the man-hour and work time required for assembling and adjusting the holder 1 are reduced. In examining the time required for assembling the holder and performing the work, it has been confirmed that this can be reduced to less than half that of the conventional structure.

Each of the claw pieces 4 for holding the disk is directly mounted on the holder body 2 of an aluminum integral type, and the lateral guide 5 made of stainless steel is not fastened to the holder body 2 via a bayonet joint 14. Therefore, even when the film is heated to the film forming temperature, the thermal expansion difference due to the difference in the materials does not interfere with each other, thereby preventing undesired thermal deformation and the occurrence of the displacement between the nail pieces 4 caused by the thermal deformation. .

Further, in addition to the above configuration, the claw portion of the disk holding claw piece 4 is formed as shown in FIG. 2 so that when the disk substrate 11 is loaded on the holder 1 by the handling operation of the robot, the disk When the substrate 11 is transferred onto the claw pieces 4 from above, the chamfer portion of the substrate fits into the concave groove 4c, and the holding posture thereof is stabilized. Thereby, even if a slight vibration is applied during the transfer of the holder 1 on the conveyor line, it is possible to prevent the occurrence of a transfer trouble in which the disk substrate 11 falls off from the holder 1, and the heat of the holder itself can be prevented even when the holder 1 is heated to the film forming temperature. Since there is no positional displacement between the nail pieces due to the mechanical deformation, there is no possibility that undue stress is applied to the disk substrate 11 even when the peripheral edge of the disk substrate 11 is fitted and held in the concave groove 4 c of the nail piece 4. . In this regard, it has been confirmed from an actual machine test that there is no disk dropping trouble which occurs about 10 times a month in the holder having the conventional structure.

[0026]

As described above, according to the structure of the present invention, the work time required for assembling and adjusting can be shortened as compared with the holder having the conventional structure, the maintenance can be improved, and the disk loaded on the holder can be improved. The support stability of the substrate is further enhanced, and the trouble that the disk substrate falls off from the holder during the transfer in the film forming process can be effectively prevented, thereby improving the reliability.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a front view showing an assembly structure of a holder according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an enlarged plan view of the tip of the disk holding claw in FIG. 1;

3A and 3B are conventional configuration diagrams of a disk substrate holder used in an in-line type sputtering apparatus, wherein FIG. 3A is a front view in an assembled state, FIG. 3B is a perspective view of FIG. 3A, and FIG. Piece top view

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Holder 2 Holder main body 2a Attachment leg part 2b recess 2c Through bolt hole 4 Disk holding claw piece 4a V-shaped groove 4c concave groove 5 Lateral guide 6 Lower shield 7 Screw 11 Disk board 12 Claw holder 13 Through bolt 14 Bayonet joint

Claims (5)

[Claims] 1. A disk substrate holder for mounting and holding a disk substrate in a vertical position in a sputtering film forming step, comprising: a plurality of disk holding claw pieces juxtaposed in accordance with the outer shape of the disk substrate; In a configuration in which a horizontal guide member serving also as a shield disposed on the left and right sides of the disk substrate is attached, and the peripheral edge of the disk substrate is placed on the claw pieces and held in a vertical position, the holder body is A claw mounting seat surface is formed, and a disk holding claw piece is directly fixed to the seat surface by screwing, and the lateral guide member is non-fastened and locked and supported on the holder body. Disk substrate holder for films. 2. The disk substrate holder according to claim 1, wherein the holder main body is an aluminum-integrated die-cast product, and has left and right ends of an upper edge of the arc-shaped main body and a recess formed at the center of the upper edge. A disk substrate holder for film formation, wherein claw mounting seat surfaces are formed on left and right side surfaces, respectively, and mounting legs are formed at a lower portion of the main body. 3. The disk substrate holder according to claim 2, wherein through holes are formed between the left and right end surfaces of the holder body corresponding to the claw mounting seat surfaces in the recess. Disk substrate holder. 4. The disk substrate holder according to claim 1, wherein the lateral guide member is detachably locked and supported on the holder main body via a bayonet joint comprising a support pin and an engagement groove. Disk substrate holder. 5. The disk substrate holder jig according to claim 1, wherein a concave groove is formed in the center of the distal end of the disk holding claw, the distal end of which has a V-shape, into which the chamfer portion of the disk substrate fits. Characteristic disk substrate holder for film formation.