JP2003221661A - Apparatus for manufacturing fluorophor sheet - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an apparatus for manufacturing a fluorophor sheet, which can form a highly adhesive fluorophor layer having thickness of more than 200 μm, in manufacturing the photostimulable fluorophor sheet which has the (photostimulable) fluorophor layer formed on a sheet substrate by vacuum deposition. <P>SOLUTION: The apparatus for manufacturing the fluorophor sheet, which has the photostimulable fluorophor layer formed on the sheet substrate by vacuum deposition, is characterized by having a vacuum chamber, an evacuation means for exhausting the air from the vacuum chamber, a cleaning means for cleaning the surface of the above substrate, and an evaporating means of a fluorophor material for forming the above fluorophor layer, and forming the above fluorophor layer on the surface of the substrate cleaned by the above cleaning means, with the fluorophor material evaporated by the above evaporating means. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2003,JPO

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention belongs to a technical field of manufacturing a phosphor sheet, and more specifically, in manufacturing a phosphor sheet in which a stimulable phosphor layer is formed by vacuum deposition, it is necessary to improve the quality of the phosphor sheet. The present invention relates to an apparatus for manufacturing a phosphor sheet.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art When irradiated with radiation (X-rays, α-rays, β-rays, γ-rays, electron beams, ultraviolet rays, etc.), a part of this radiation energy is accumulated, and then the excitation light such as visible light It is known that a phosphor emits stimulated emission according to stored energy when irradiated. This phosphor is called a stimulable phosphor (stimulable phosphor) and is used in various applications such as medical applications.

As an example, a sheet having a layer containing a stimulable phosphor (hereinafter referred to as a phosphor layer) (hereinafter referred to as a phosphor sheet (also referred to as a radiation image conversion sheet) is used, A radiation image information recording / reproducing system is known, and for example, an FCR (Fuji Computed Radiogra
phy: Commercialized as Fuji Photo Film Co., Ltd., etc. In this system, phosphor sheet (phosphor layer)
The radiation image information of a subject such as a human body is recorded on the phosphor sheet, and after recording, the phosphor sheet is two-dimensionally scanned with excitation light such as laser light to generate stimulated emission light, and this stimulated emission light is photoelectrically converted. Then, an image signal is read and an image reproduced based on this image signal is output as a visible image of a radiation image of a subject on a recording material such as a photographic photosensitive material or a display device such as a CRT.

For such a phosphor sheet, a paint prepared by dispersing powder of a stimulable phosphor in a solvent containing a binder is usually prepared, and the paint is applied to a glass or resin sheet-like support. It is prepared by applying and drying to form a phosphor layer. On the other hand, there is also known a phosphor sheet in which a phosphor layer is formed on a support by a physical vapor deposition method (vapor-phase film forming method) such as vacuum vapor deposition or sputtering (Japanese Patent No. 2789194, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 5789194). -249299 etc.). The phosphor layer produced by vapor deposition has a small amount of impurities because it is formed in a vacuum, and contains almost no components other than the stimulable phosphor such as a binder, so that there is little variation in performance and luminous efficiency is high. It has the excellent property of being very good.

[0005]

Generally, vacuum evaporation is used as a thin film forming method in various fields such as coating of optical parts, manufacture of magnetic recording media and electronic displays. In the film formation by vapor deposition in these, in most cases, the thickness of the film to be formed is 1 μm or less, and at most 3 μm. On the other hand, the phosphor layer of the phosphor sheet formed by vacuum deposition has a thickness of 2
00μm or more, usually about 500μm, 10 for thick
A thickness of 00 μm is required.

Usually, when forming such a thick phosphor layer by vacuum vapor deposition, the surface of a resin sheet-like support which is the base is highly cleaned and then placed in a vacuum chamber. The vapor deposition is performed under predetermined operating conditions by the vapor deposition apparatus equipped with the phosphor heating evaporation source, the plasma generator, the substrate bias device, and the gas introduction device.

By the way, conventionally, the cleaning of the surface of the support has generally been carried out by an ultrasonic automatic cleaning system such as a cleaning liquid, pure water, IPA (isopropyl alcohol) and IPA vapor drying. However, when forming a thick film phosphor layer by vacuum deposition, if the degree of cleaning of the surface of the resin-made support that is the base is not highly uniform, the phosphor layer and the support surface There is a problem in that the adhesion of the phosphor layer is greatly affected, and the phosphor layer may peel off in some cases.

The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and an object thereof is to provide a stimulable phosphor for producing a (stimulable) phosphor layer on a sheet-like substrate by vacuum deposition. An object of the present invention is to provide a phosphor sheet manufacturing apparatus capable of forming a phosphor layer having a thickness of more than 200 μm with high adhesiveness in the manufacture of a sheet.

[0009]

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention is a phosphor sheet manufacturing apparatus for forming a stimulable phosphor layer on a sheet-shaped substrate by vacuum deposition. And a vacuum evacuation means for evacuating the inside of the vacuum chamber, a cleaning means for cleaning the surface of the substrate, and an evaporation means for the phosphor material forming the phosphor layer. On the cleaned substrate surface,
The phosphor sheet manufacturing apparatus is characterized in that the phosphor layer is formed from the phosphor material evaporated by the evaporation means.

Here, the means for cleaning the surface of the substrate is preferably an ion irradiation means, and the ion irradiation means is preferably an ion gun for sweeping and irradiating the surface of the substrate.

In the phosphor sheet manufacturing apparatus according to the present invention, when the size of the substrate of the phosphor sheet to be cleaned is 200 mm × 200 mm or more, and the thickness of the phosphor layer is It is particularly effective when it is at least 200 μm or more. This is because when the above ion gun is used, uniform cleaning is possible even when the substrate has a size of 200 mm × 200 mm or more, and the effect of preventing the peeling of the thick phosphor layer is large. .

[0012]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION Embodiments of the present invention will now be described in detail with reference to the preferred embodiments shown in the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 is a conceptual diagram of a phosphor sheet manufacturing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. The stimulable phosphor sheet manufacturing apparatus 10 (hereinafter referred to as the manufacturing apparatus 10) in the illustrated example is
A layer containing a stimulable phosphor ((accumulative) phosphor layer) is formed on the surface of a sheet-like substrate S by dual vacuum vapor deposition to produce a (accumulative) phosphor sheet. Basically, a so-called substrate rotation type vacuum vapor deposition apparatus configured to have a vacuum chamber 12, a substrate rotating mechanism 14, and a heating / evaporating unit 22 is used. The vacuum chamber 12 has an ion gun 1 as a substrate surface cleaning means, which is a characteristic configuration of the manufacturing apparatus 10 according to the present embodiment.
8 are provided. Further, the vacuum chamber 12 is connected to a vacuum pump (vacuum exhaust means) (not shown) for exhausting the inside of the system to a predetermined degree of vacuum.

The manufacturing apparatus 10 of the illustrated example is, for example, cesium bromide (CsBr) and europium bromide (Eu).
Br _x (x is usually 2 to 3)) is used as a film-forming material to perform a dual vacuum vapor deposition to form a phosphor layer having CsBr: Eu as a stimulable phosphor on the substrate. A phosphor sheet is prepared.

In the phosphor sheet manufactured by the manufacturing apparatus according to the present invention, the substrate S is not particularly limited, and glass, ceramics, carbon, aluminum, PET,
Any of various sheet-shaped substrates used for phosphor sheets such as PEN and polyimide can be used.

The stimulable phosphor is also the above-mentioned CsBr: E.
It is not limited to u, and various types can be used. Preferably, a stimulable phosphor that exhibits stimulated emission in the wavelength range of 300 nm to 500 nm upon irradiation with excitation light having a wavelength in the range of 400 nm to 900 nm is used. Such a stimulable phosphor is disclosed in JP-B-7-84588 and JP-A-2-1.
No. 93100 and No. 4-310900 are described in detail.

[0017] Among them, basic composition formula ^{M I X · aM II X '} 2 · bM III X''3: alkali metal halide material stimulable phosphor represented by zA, in particular, preferable. In the above equation, M
^I represents at least one alkali metal selected from the group consisting of Li, Na, K, Rb and Cs, and M ^II
Is Be, Mg, Ca, Sr, Ba, Ni, Cu, Zn
And at least one alkaline earth metal or divalent metal selected from the group consisting of Cd, M
^III is Sc, Y, La, Ce, Pr, Nd, Pm, S
m, Eu, Gd, Tb, Dy, Ho, Er, Tm, Y
represents at least one rare earth element or a trivalent metal selected from the group consisting of b, Lu, Al, Ga and In, and A represents Y, Ce, Pr, Nd, Sm, Eu, G
d, Tb, Dy, Ho, Er, Tm, Yb, Lu, N
at least one rare earth element or metal selected from the group consisting of a, Mg, Cu, Ag, Tl and Bi, and X, X ′ and X ″ are F, Cl and Br.
And at least one halogen selected from the group consisting of Also, a is a numerical value within the range of 0 ≦ a <0.5, b is a numerical value within the range of 0 ≦ b <0.5, and z is a range of 0 ≦ z <1.0. The numerical values in each are shown.

In the above basic composition formula, M ^I preferably contains at least Cs, X preferably contains at least Br, and A represents
It is preferably Eu or Bi. Further, the metal halide stimulable phosphor represented by the above basic composition formula,
If necessary, metal oxides such as aluminum oxide, silicon dioxide, and zirconium oxide may be added as an additive in an amount of 0.5 mol or less with respect to 1 mol of M ^I.

Further, the film forming material is not particularly limited, either.
The material containing the phosphor and the material containing the activator may be appropriately selected according to the stimulable phosphor.

The vacuum chamber 12 is a known vacuum chamber (bell jar, vacuum chamber) made of iron, stainless steel, aluminum or the like and used in a vacuum vapor deposition apparatus. In the illustrated example, in the vacuum chamber 12, a substrate rotating mechanism 14 is arranged on the upper side, and a heating / evaporating section 22 and an ion gun 18 as a means for cleaning the substrate surface are arranged on the lower side.
In addition, here, the case where only one set of the heating / evaporating section 22 is illustrated, but it goes without saying that a plurality of sets of the heating / evaporating section 22 may be provided.

As described above, the vacuum chamber 12 is connected to a vacuum pump (not shown). The vacuum pump is also not particularly limited, and various vacuum pumps used in the vacuum vapor deposition apparatus can be used as long as the required ultimate vacuum can be achieved. As an example, an oil diffusion pump, a cryopump, a turbo molecular pump or the like may be used, and a cryocoil or the like may be used together as an auxiliary.
In the manufacturing apparatus 10 according to this embodiment, the ultimate vacuum in the vacuum chamber 12 is preferably 6.7 × 10 ⁻³ Pa or less, and particularly preferably 4.0 × 10 ⁻⁴ Pa or less.

The substrate rotating mechanism 14 holds and rotates the substrate S, and comprises a rotary shaft 28 which engages with a rotary drive source (motor) 28a and a turntable 30. The turntable 30 is a disc including an upper body 32 and a lower (heat / evaporation unit 22 side) sheath heater 34, and a rotary shaft 28 that engages with a motor 28a is fixed to the center of the disc. The turntable 30 includes a heating / evaporating unit 22 described later.
At a predetermined position corresponding to (vaporization position of film forming material),
The substrate S is held on the lower surface (lower surface of the sheath heater 34),
It is rotated at a predetermined speed by the rotating shaft 28. Further, the sheath heater 34 heats the substrate S on which the film is to be formed, from the back surface (the surface opposite to the film formation surface). The substrate S may be held on the turntable 30 with the film forming surface facing downward by a known method using a holder that also serves as a mask, a jig, or the like.

A substrate rotating mechanism 14 in the vacuum chamber 12
The heating / evaporating unit 22 is arranged below. FIG. 2 shows a conceptual diagram of the heating / evaporating unit 22. In FIG. 2, (A) is a top view (as viewed from above in FIG. 1), and (B) is a front view (FIG. 1).
And the view seen from the same direction). As described above, the manufacturing apparatus 10 according to the present embodiment uses cesium bromide and europium bromide as film forming materials, and performs binary vacuum vapor deposition in which these are individually heated and evaporated,
The heating / evaporating section 22 is a europium evaporating section 38 (hereinafter, referred to as E
u evaporation section 38) and a cesium evaporation section 40 (hereinafter,
Cs evaporation section 40).

The Eu evaporation section 38 is a section where the resistance heating device 42 resistance-heats and evaporates the europium bromide (activator material) contained in the evaporation position Pe (crucible). In the present invention, the resistance heating device 42 for resistively heating and evaporating the activator material is not particularly limited, and may be a vacuum if it can be suitably evaporated depending on the activator material used. Various types used in the vapor deposition apparatus can be used. Specifically, as the heating device (evaporation source), various devices used in the resistance heating device such as a boat type, a filament type, a crucible type, a chimney type, and a K cell (Knudsen cell) can be used. Further, as the power source (heating control means), various methods used in the resistance heating device such as a thyristor method, a DC method, and a thermocouple feedback method can be used. Also,
The output at the time of resistance heating is not particularly limited and may be appropriately set according to the activator material and the like, but in the illustrated example, it varies depending on the resistance value of the heater, but 50A to 10
It may be about 00A.

As described above, in the phosphor layer of the phosphor sheet, the concentration of the activator and the phosphor in the layer is about 0.0005 / 1 to 0.01 / 1 in terms of molar concentration ratio. Yes,
Most of the phosphor layer is a phosphor. Therefore, in the manufacturing apparatus 10 of the illustrated example, the Eu evaporating section 38 (evaporating section of the activator material) does not have a material supply means, but the present invention is not limited to this, and if necessary, Cs evaporation section 40
Like the (phosphor material evaporation section), a material supply means may be provided.

Further, the heating and evaporation means of the activator material is not limited to the resistance heating means as shown in the drawing, but the electron beam (E
B) Various heating and evaporation means used in vacuum deposition such as heating and induction heating can be used.

On the other hand, the Cs evaporation unit 40 irradiates the evaporation position Pc (hearth) with an electron beam (electron beam = EB) emitted from the electron gun 44 to heat and evaporate cesium bromide which is a phosphor material. , An electron beam heating device. The manufacturing apparatus 10 according to the present embodiment is a binary vapor deposition in which a phosphor material and an activator material are separately heated and evaporated in the production of a phosphor sheet in which a phosphor layer is formed by vacuum evaporation,
Moreover, the heating and evaporation of the activator material is performed by resistance heating, and the heating and evaporation of the phosphor material is performed by electron beam heating, whereby the activator is uniformly dispersed in the phosphor layer (that is, in the phosphor),
This makes it possible to efficiently manufacture extremely high-quality phosphor sheets.

In the manufacturing apparatus 10 according to this embodiment,
As the Cs evaporating unit 40 (evaporating means for phosphor material), various known evaporating means can be basically used as long as they are heated by an electron beam. Therefore, the electron gun is not particularly limited, and is used in vacuum vapor deposition such as a 180 ° deflection gun that deflects an electron beam by 180 ° and enters the evaporation position, a 270 ° deflection gun, a 90 ° deflection straight gun, etc. Various electron guns are available. In the illustrated example, the electron gun 44
Uses a 270 ° deflection gun as an example.

The emission current of the electron gun 44 and the acceleration voltage of the EB are not limited, and may be sufficient if they correspond to the film forming material and the film thickness to be formed. In the illustrated example, as an example, it is preferable that the EB accelerating voltage is -1 kV to -30 kV, and the emission current is 50 mA to 2 A in the Cs evaporation unit 40.

Here, as described above, the phosphor layer formed on the phosphor sheet is much thicker than an ordinary vacuum-deposited film, even if thin, about 200 μm, usually about 500 μm,
When it is thick, it may exceed 1000 μm. Further, the activator and the phosphor are, for example, 0.0
About 005/1 to 0.01 / 1, most of the phosphor layer is a phosphor. Therefore, in the manufacturing apparatus 10 of the illustrated example, as a preferable mode, the Cs evaporation unit 40 is a material supply unit 4 that is a supply unit of cesium bromide (phosphor material).
Have six.

In the illustrated example, the material supplying means 46 is basically composed of a cylinder 48, a piston 50, a casing 52, and an elevating means (motor) 54. The cylinder 48 is a cylinder fixed to the wall surface of the vacuum chamber 12 in a state of penetrating the lower surface of the vacuum chamber 12 and partially protruding outside so that the upper end portion thereof coincides with the electron beam irradiation position. . That is, in the illustrated example, the cylinder 48 is a so-called hearth, and the upper end portion thereof is the evaporation position Pc of cesium bromide.

The piston 50 has a cylindrical piston head 50a that is loosely fitted in the cylinder 48, and a piston pin 50b that fixes the piston head 50a at the tip.
Composed of and. The piston pin 50b is engaged with the elevating means 54 for elevating the piston 50 (in the direction of arrow a). Further, the open end of the cylinder 48 is covered with the casing 52 to keep the inside of the vacuum chamber 12 airtight, and the piston pin 50b is supported by a bearing (not shown).
Airtightly supported by the casing 52 so as to be capable of reciprocating in the ascending and descending direction.

Cesium bromide is formed into a cylindrical shape having a diameter slightly smaller than the inner diameter of the cylinder 48, and the piston head 50
It is accommodated in the cylinder 48 in a state of being placed on a. The columnar film forming material may be formed by a known method,
For example, a method in which a powdery film forming material is put into a molding die, molded by a powder mold press molding machine, and then vacuum dried is exemplified. When the cesium bromide at the evaporation position Pc is consumed by the film formation on the substrate, the elevating means 54 is driven accordingly to raise the columnar cesium bromide. As a result, cesium bromide is always supplied to the upper surface of the cylinder 48, that is, the evaporation position,
It is possible to favorably cope with the formation of a thick film exceeding the above range.

In the present invention, the material supplying means is not limited to the illustrated example, and various kinds of material supplying means used in a vacuum vapor deposition apparatus or the like can be used. As a specific example, various material supply means described in the specification of Japanese Patent Application No. 2001-296364 by the present applicant are preferably used.

As described above, in the phosphor sheet, the activator is in a very small amount relative to the phosphor, and it is important to control the components of the phosphor layer. Here, according to the study by the present inventors, in order to form a high quality phosphor layer having a thickness of more than 200 μm, in which an activator is uniformly dispersed and added (doped) in the phosphor. It is preferable that vapor is separately generated for the phosphor film-forming material and the activator film-forming material to generate a mixed vapor in which both are sufficiently mixed, and the mixed vapor is used to form a film on the substrate. .

For this purpose, it is preferable to dispose the phosphor material and the activator material close to each other in the evaporation position. The closer the evaporation positions of the phosphor material and the activator material are, the better the quality of the phosphor in which the activator is uniformly dispersed. Layers can be formed. Moreover, the closer the two evaporation positions are, the more
Since the mixing region of the two vapors can be increased, the material utilization efficiency can be improved.

Generally, as a heating means in vacuum vapor deposition, heating with an electron beam using an electron gun is preferably used in terms of evaporation rate and controllability. However, in a two-dimensional (multi-source) vacuum vapor deposition apparatus, when an electron beam is used as a heating means, the evaporation positions of the respective materials cannot be arranged close to each other, and a good phosphor in which the activator is uniformly dispersed is obtained. In some cases, the layer cannot be stably formed. Therefore,
As is well known, the electron beam heating requires a magnet for deflecting the electron beam emitted from the electron gun and irradiating the hearth (film forming material). However, when the electron beam heating is used in the binary vacuum vapor deposition, when the evaporation positions are brought close to each other, the magnetic fields of the magnets interfere with each other and the hearth cannot be properly irradiated with the electron beam.

Therefore, the manufacturing apparatus 10 according to the present embodiment.
In the above, by combining electron beam heating and resistance heating, the above-mentioned problem of the magnetic field is solved, and the evaporation position of the film forming material by both heating means depends on the configuration of the manufacturing apparatus 10 and the configuration of each evaporation means. , I tried to place them as close as possible physically. Here, by performing evaporation of the phosphor material having a large vapor deposition amount by electron beam heating, evaporation can be performed with good controllability and efficiency, and film formation can be controlled more suitably. On the other hand, the resistance heating can disperse a minute amount of the film-forming material spatially with high uniformity and evaporate it. Therefore, by using this as a heating means of the activator material, a minute amount of the material can be added to the mixed vapor. It is possible to form a high-quality phosphor layer in which the vapor of the activator material is preferably dispersed to more uniformly disperse the activator.

Furthermore, in the manufacturing apparatus 10 according to the present embodiment, as described above, after the substrate surface to be the base is highly cleaned, vapor deposition is performed under a predetermined operating condition, so that the substrate surface and the phosphor are It is characterized by strengthening the adhesion to the layer. Hereinafter, this point will be described in detail.

Here, as a method for cleaning the surface of the substrate to a high degree, the ion irradiation etching by the ion gun 18 is adopted. That is, the substrate S before the start of vapor deposition
This method employs a method of starting the vapor deposition of the phosphor layer after performing ion irradiation etching with the ion gun 18 on the surface to remove impurities and the like adhering to the surface of the substrate S.

The procedure for forming the phosphor layer in the manufacturing apparatus according to this embodiment will be described below. As described above, the manufacturing apparatus 10 uses a rotary vacuum deposition apparatus. When manufacturing the phosphor sheet, first, the film formation surface is directed downward at a predetermined position on the lower surface of the turntable 30. Substrate S
After mounting, the vacuum chamber 12 is closed to reduce the pressure, and the sheath heater 34 is driven to heat the substrate S from the back surface.

When the inside of the vacuum chamber 12 reaches a predetermined degree of vacuum, the turntable 30 is rotated at a predetermined speed by the motor 28, and ion irradiation etching is performed by the ion gun 18 to adhere the substrate S surface. Remove impurities. The operating conditions of the ion gun 18 at this time are, for example, an ion current of 100 mA in an Ar gas atmosphere.
˜6 A, beam voltage −100 V to −2000 V is preferable, and in the embodiment, ion current 1 A, beam voltage −5.
It is set to 00V.

After the removal of impurities from the surface of the substrate S by the ion gun 18 is completed, the resistance heating device 42 of the Eu evaporation unit 38 is driven in the heating evaporation unit 22 to evaporate the position Pe.
Evaporate the europium bromide contained in the (crucible),
At the same time, the electron gun 44 of the Cs evaporation unit 40 is driven to evaporate the cesium bromide at the evaporation position Pc, and CsB to the substrate S
The vapor deposition of r: Eu, that is, the formation of the phosphor layer is started. As described above, since both evaporation positions are arranged close to each other and the evaporation of europium bromide is performed by resistance heating, the heating and evaporation unit 22 uniformly disperses a very small amount of vapor of europium bromide. The mixed vapor of the two film-forming materials is formed, and the mixed vapor vapor-deposits CsBr: Eu in which the activator is uniformly dispersed.

After the film having the predetermined thickness is formed, the turntable 30 is stopped from rotating, the vacuum chamber 12 is opened, and the substrate S having the phosphor layer formed thereon is taken out. When the film is formed again, the substrate S may be loaded and the film may be formed in the same manner.

Here, specific effects of the manufacturing apparatus 10 according to this embodiment will be described. [Example 1] A peeling test of the phosphor layer from the substrate S was performed in the case (A) where the cleaning process using the ion gun was performed as described above and the case (B) where the cleaning process was not performed. It was The above two types of samples were tested at a temperature of 60 ° and a humidity of 90%.
When the sample of B which was not subjected to the cleaning treatment showed partial peeling of the phosphor layer after one week when stored in a constant temperature and humidity environment of In the sample, peeling of the phosphor layer did not occur even after 4 weeks.

Example 2 With respect to the same sample as in Example 1, the humidity was kept constant at 60% and only the temperature was from 20 ° C to 90 ° C.
A test was conducted in which the temperature increase / decrease was repeated every 10 minutes. The result is that in the sample B which was not subjected to the cleaning treatment, partial peeling of the phosphor layer occurred when the temperature was raised and lowered 1000 times, whereas in the sample A which was subjected to the cleaning treatment. Then, even after 10,000 times,
No peeling of the phosphor layer occurred.

From the above results, the effect of the present invention is clear. That is, by cleaning the surface of the substrate before vapor deposition, it is possible to form a film that is less likely to peel even when a thick phosphor layer is formed.

The above embodiment is an example of the phosphor sheet manufacturing apparatus in which the ion irradiation etching by the ion gun 18 is performed before the film formation of the phosphor layer is started.
The present invention is not limited to this, and various configurations can be changed. For example, in addition to the ion irradiation etching by the ion gun 18 as described above, a gas (introducing means 56) introduced into the vacuum chamber 12 is supplied to a high frequency applying device,
The substrate S may be cleaned as a structure in which plasma is generated by another plasma generating means such as a microwave applying device.

Further, the phosphor sheet manufacturing apparatus of the present invention is
The present invention is not limited to the one using a rotary type vacuum vapor deposition apparatus as shown in the example, and has, for example, a load chamber and an unload chamber connected to a vacuum chamber, and a substrate is loaded in the load chamber.
It is possible to use a so-called load-lock type vacuum vapor deposition device that deposits a film while transporting the substrate from the load chamber to the vacuum chamber to the unload chamber and takes it out from the unload chamber, or to place the substrate at a predetermined position. A vacuum vapor deposition apparatus of the type that is fixed to the substrate and performs vapor deposition may be used.

Although the phosphor sheet manufacturing apparatus of the present invention has been described in detail above, the present invention is not limited to the above-mentioned embodiments, and various improvements and changes can be made without departing from the gist of the present invention. Of course you can go.

[0051]

As described above in detail, according to the present invention, it is possible to manufacture a phosphor sheet capable of forming a phosphor layer with a high degree of adhesion despite the layer thickness exceeding 200 μm. The device can be realized.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a concept of a phosphor sheet manufacturing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

2A and 2B are conceptual diagrams of a heating / evaporating unit of the phosphor sheet manufacturing apparatus shown in FIG. 1, in which FIG. 2A is a top view and FIG. 2B is a front view.

[Explanation of symbols]

10 Manufacturing equipment 12 vacuum chamber 14 Substrate rotation mechanism 18 ion gun 22 Heating and evaporation section 28 motors 30 turntable 34 sheath heater 38 Eu Evaporator 40 Cs Evaporator 42 Resistance heating device 44 electron gun 46 Material Supply Means 56 Gas introduction means

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Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A phosphor sheet manufacturing apparatus for forming a stimulable phosphor layer on a sheet-shaped substrate by vacuum deposition, comprising: a vacuum chamber; a vacuum exhaust unit for exhausting the interior of the vacuum chamber; and the substrate. Cleaning means for cleaning the surface of
And a means for evaporating the phosphor material for forming the phosphor layer, and forming the phosphor layer on the substrate surface cleaned by the cleaning means by the phosphor material evaporated by the evaporation means. An apparatus for manufacturing a phosphor sheet, which is characterized by: 2. The phosphor sheet manufacturing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the means for cleaning the surface of the substrate is an ion irradiation means. 3. The phosphor sheet manufacturing apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the ion irradiation means is an ion gun for sweeping and irradiating the surface of the substrate.