JP2014107010A - Plasma processing apparatus and plasma processing method - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a plasma processing apparatus and a plasma processing method which allows for reduction of the cleaning time, when cleaning a substrate before plasma processing.SOLUTION: A plasma processing apparatus 10 for performing plasma processing of a substrate 1 includes a plasma nozzle 14 for blowing plasma 5 to the substrate 1, an air nozzle 15 for blowing air 6 to the substrate 1, and a feed member 16 for moving the plasma nozzle 14 and the air nozzle 15 relatively to the substrate 1, while holding them integrally.

Description

  The present invention relates to a plasma processing apparatus and a plasma processing method.

  Conventionally, plasma treatment is performed on the surface of an object to be treated in order to increase the adhesive force by removing foreign matters and dirt on the surface of the object to be treated (hereinafter also referred to as a substrate) and improving the hydrophilicity of the surface of the object to be treated. There is a plasma processing apparatus that performs the above. A technique for performing plasma processing on the surface of an object to be processed using such a plasma processing apparatus is disclosed (for example, see Patent Document 1).

  Patent Document 1 describes a method for forming a coating film in which a coating liquid is applied after the substrate before coating film formation is subjected to atmospheric pressure plasma treatment with an atmospheric pressure plasma apparatus.

  In such a plasma processing technique, if a small amount of dirt adheres to the surface of the workpiece to be plasma-treated, it has a cleaning ability to remove the dirt only by the plasma treatment, but a large amount of dirt is deposited on the surface of the workpiece. In the case where dirt is attached, the dirt cannot be removed only by the plasma treatment, and the ability to improve the hydrophilicity of the surface of the object to be treated by the plasma treatment is also lowered. For this reason, when the dirt cannot be completely removed by the plasma treatment, as shown in FIG. 3, it is conceivable to additionally provide a cleaning process for cleaning the surface of the object to be processed as a previous process of the plasma processing process. In this regard, paragraph 0037 of Patent Document 1 also describes that the substrate after cleaning with the cleaning liquid is subjected to atmospheric pressure plasma treatment.

JP 2005-279376 A

  However, when a cleaning process is provided as a pre-process of the plasma treatment process as described above, there is a risk that the dirt will re-attach to the surface of the workpiece between the cleaning process and the plasma treatment process. It is necessary to take preventive measures, which increases man-hours. In addition, when a cleaning process is separately provided as a pre-process of the plasma processing process and the cleaning process and the plasma processing process are performed separately in two, extra costs and time are required by providing the cleaning process separately. It will be.

  Accordingly, the present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and provides a plasma processing apparatus and a plasma processing method capable of reducing the cleaning time when the substrate is cleaned before the plasma processing. For the purpose.

  The problem to be solved by the present invention is as described above. Next, means for solving the problem will be described.

That is, in claim 1,
In a plasma processing apparatus for performing plasma processing on a substrate,
A plasma nozzle for spraying plasma on the substrate;
An air nozzle that blows air onto the substrate;
The plasma processing apparatus includes a feeding member that integrally holds the plasma nozzle and the air nozzle and moves the plasma nozzle relative to the substrate.

In claim 2,
The plasma processing apparatus includes an air supply member that supplies air blown from the air nozzle to the substrate and air that drives the feed member.

In claim 3,
The air nozzle is a plasma processing apparatus disposed in front of the relative movement direction with respect to the substrate, and the plasma nozzle is disposed in the rear of the relative movement direction with respect to the substrate.

In claim 4,
A plasma processing method using the plasma processing apparatus according to claim 3,
In the plasma processing method, air is blown to the substrate by the air nozzle and plasma is blown to the substrate by the plasma nozzle while the plasma nozzle and the air nozzle are integrally moved relative to the substrate.

  As effects of the present invention, the following effects can be obtained.

  According to the first aspect of the present invention, air cleaning and plasma treatment can be realized in a single process, and the cleaning process time can be reduced.

  According to the second aspect of the present invention, it is possible to realize simplification of equipment by using air as the drive source of the feed member during nozzle conveyance and making the supply source of air the same as the cleaning air.

  In the third aspect, in addition to the effect of the first or second aspect of the invention, immediately after the substrate is cleaned with air, plasma can be sprayed on the substrate to perform plasma treatment.

  According to the fourth aspect of the present invention, it is possible to realize the cleaning with air and the plasma processing with respect to the base material in one process, and the time for the cleaning process can be reduced.

The schematic diagram which shows the whole structure of the plasma processing apparatus which concerns on one Embodiment of this invention. The figure which shows the flow of the assembly | attachment process of the components containing the plasma processing process using the plasma processing apparatus of this embodiment. The figure which shows the flow of the assembly | attachment process of the components containing the plasma processing process using the conventional plasma processing apparatus.

Next, embodiments of the invention will be described.
First, a plasma processing apparatus 10 according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. The plasma processing apparatus 10 can be used, for example, to improve the hydrophilicity of a sealed surface by performing plasma processing on the sealed surface in order to increase the adhesive force of the sealed surface. A specific application example of the plasma processing apparatus 10 will be described later.

The plasma processing apparatus 10 according to the present embodiment is an apparatus that performs plasma processing on the substrate 1 by irradiating the substrate 1 with plasma 5. The plasma processing apparatus 10 is an apparatus that performs plasma processing at atmospheric pressure (normal pressure). As shown in FIG. 1, the plasma processing apparatus 10 includes a gas supply means 11, a high frequency power source 12, a reaction vessel 13, a plasma nozzle 14, an air nozzle 15, a feed member 16, an air supply member 17, and a control. Means 20 is mainly provided.
In the present embodiment, the vertical direction in FIG. 1 is the vertical direction of the plasma processing apparatus 10, the right direction in FIG. 1 is the front of the plasma processing apparatus 10, and the plasma nozzle 14 and the air nozzle 15 are provided with respect to the substrate 1. The direction of relative movement.

The base material 1 is a workpiece whose surface 1a is subjected to plasma processing by the plasma processing apparatus 10, and is a metal member made of an aluminum alloy. When the plasma processing is performed by the plasma processing apparatus 10, the substrate 1 is loaded and placed at a predetermined position below the movable range of the plasma nozzle 14 and the air nozzle 15, and is positioned and fixed. The substrate 1 is improved in hydrophilicity and cleaned by surface modification of the surface 1a of the substrate 1 by plasma treatment.
In addition, the base material 1 does not specifically limit the material to metal members, such as an aluminum alloy, Another metal, an alloy, a resin member, etc. may be sufficient.

The gas supply unit 11 is a unit that generates a plasma processing gas (hereinafter referred to as a processing gas) necessary for the plasma processing and supplies the generated gas to the reaction vessel 13.
The processing gas is one or more gases selected from argon gas, oxygen, air, nitrogen, helium gas, fluorine-based gas, ammonia and the like, and a single or mixed gas can be used. It is not limited. Further, as the processing gas, for example, a mixed gas mainly composed of argon gas by mixing argon gas and oxygen can be used.

  The high frequency power source 12 is a power source for applying a high frequency voltage to voltage application means (not shown) included in the reaction vessel 13.

The reaction vessel 13 is provided with voltage application means (not shown) such as a counter electrode for applying a voltage to the processing gas, and a high frequency voltage of a predetermined frequency can be applied from the high frequency power source 12 to the voltage application means. Composed. The reaction vessel 13 is configured such that a processing gas can be supplied from the gas supply means 11 through one end of the reaction vessel 13. Thus, in the reaction vessel 13, the processing gas is supplied from the gas supply unit 11, and a high frequency voltage is applied to the processing gas by the voltage applying unit, whereby the processing gas is reacted to generate plasma 5. The plasma 5 is jetted in a predetermined direction (downward in the present embodiment) from a plasma nozzle 14 provided at the other end of the reaction vessel 13 under an atmospheric pressure atmosphere, whereby the surface 1a of the substrate 1 facing the plasma nozzle 14 is obtained. Plasma 5 is sprayed on the surface 1a, and the surface 1a is plasma-treated.
The plasma processing according to the present invention is not limited to the atmospheric pressure (normal pressure) plasma processing as in the present embodiment, but can be performed by a reduced pressure (vacuum) plasma processing. This is because a processing gas such as argon gas is introduced into a reaction vessel evacuated to vacuum, a high frequency voltage is applied to a voltage application means such as a counter electrode provided in the reaction vessel to generate plasma, and this plasma is blown out. The plasma treatment is performed.

  The plasma nozzle 14 is a nozzle that blows the plasma 5 on the substrate 1. Specifically, the plasma nozzle 14 has a rectangular tube shape and is disposed at the lower end of the reaction vessel 13, and the plasma 5 generated in the reaction vessel 13 is directed from the lower end opening in a predetermined direction (downward in the present embodiment). It is a nozzle for spraying on. The plasma nozzle 14 is disposed above the substrate 1 with a predetermined interval when the substrate 5 is irradiated with the plasma 5.

  The air nozzle 15 is a nozzle that blows air 6 on the substrate 1. Specifically, the air nozzle 15 is a tapered cylindrical portion that gradually increases in diameter as it goes downward, and is disposed at the lower end of an air branching member 19 that supplies air 6 to the air nozzle 15. This is a nozzle for blowing air 6 supplied in a predetermined direction (in the present embodiment, obliquely downward in the forward direction) from the lower end opening. The air nozzle 15 is disposed above the substrate 1 with a predetermined interval when the air 6 is jetted onto the substrate 1. As the air 6 blown from the air nozzle 15, a suitable cleaning effect can be obtained by using predetermined high-pressure air (about 0.5 MPa in the present embodiment).

  The air nozzle 15 is disposed in front of the relative movement direction with respect to the substrate 1, and the plasma nozzle 14 is disposed behind in the relative movement direction with respect to the substrate 1. That is, the air nozzle 15 is disposed adjacent to the front side of the plasma nozzle 14. It is preferable that the blowing direction of the air 6 blown from the air nozzle 15 is a forward diagonally downward direction from the air nozzle 15 as in the present embodiment. Thus, by making the blowing direction of the air 6 blown from the air nozzle 15 forward and obliquely downward from the air nozzle 15, the dirt adhering to the surface 1a of the substrate 1 is removed by blowing away forward and diagonally forward and left. There is an effect that dirt is not scattered on the surface 1a of the base material 1 which becomes the plasma 5 spraying surface behind the surface 15.

  As shown in FIG. 1, the feed member 16 is a means for holding the plasma nozzle 14 and the air nozzle 15 together and moving them relative to the substrate 1. That is, the feed member 16 is a feed means that can move and position the plasma nozzle 14 and the air nozzle 15 in the front-rear direction with the plasma nozzle 14 and the air nozzle 15 integrally held. The feed member 16 is mainly composed of a support guide member 16a, a moving member 16b, a holding portion 16c, a feed member driving means 23, and an air supply member 17. The support guide member 16a is a member that extends in the front-rear direction and guides the moving member 16b in the front-rear direction below the support guide member 16a so as to be movable. The moving member 16b is a member that is supported by a lower portion of the support guide member 16a and can move and position in the front-rear direction with respect to the support guide member 16a. The holding portion 16 c is disposed below the moving member 16 b and integrally holds the air nozzle 15 via the reaction vessel 13 and the plasma nozzle 14 and the air branching member 19. The feed member driving means 23 is a drive means for driving the feed member 16 disposed in the front part in the moving member 16b forward, and the feed member driving means 23 is supplied with air 6 to feed the feed member 16. The feed power for advancing 16 forward can be obtained. In this embodiment, an air motor is used as the feed member driving means 23.

The air supply member 17 is means for supplying the air 6 blown to the base material 1 from the air nozzle 15 and the air 6 that drives the feed member 16. The air supply member 17 includes an air supply main member 18, an air branching member 19, and an air supply unit 21. The air supply main member 18 is a pipe that extends in the relative movement direction from one end of the air supply unit 21 to the inside of the moving member 16b. The air supply main member 18 is a pipe to which air 6 is supplied in order to obtain feed power when the moving member 16b is moved in a predetermined direction (forward in this embodiment), and the front portion of the air supply main member 18 The feed member driving means 23 (in this embodiment, an air motor) is connected. The air branching member 19 is a pipe branched downward from a substantially central portion of the air supply main member 18, and is connected to and communicated with the air supply main member 18 and the air nozzle 15. The air supply unit 21 is air supply means for supplying air 6 to the air supply main member 18. As described above, in the present embodiment, the air supply main member 18 that is one system of pipes extending from the air supply unit 21 is branched into two systems at the branching part 22 indicated by the dotted line circle in FIG. The front portion of the air supply main member 18 that is one of the pipes is used as an air supply pipe for power of the feed member 16 (for driving the air motor that is the feed member drive means 23), and the air branch that is the other branched pipe The member 19 is an air supply pipe for the air 6 that blows out from the air nozzle 15, and the air supply unit 21 side (primary side) is integrated into one. The air supply unit 21 supplies air 6 having a predetermined air pressure to the air supply main member 18 connected to the air supply unit 21, so that the air supply unit 21 supplies the air supply main member 18 to the front side portion of the air supply main member 18. The air 6 drives the front air motor in the moving member 16 b to feed the moving member 16 b forward. On the other hand, the air 6 supplied from the branch portion 22 to the lower air branch member 19 passes through the air nozzle 15. As a result, the air 6 blows forward and obliquely downward. At this time, as the moving member 16b is sent forward, the plasma nozzle 14 and the air nozzle 15 are sent forward integrally. In the air supply unit 21, the air pressure and the air supply amount are controlled by the control means 20. The control means 20 can control and move the air supply unit 21 to move and position the plasma nozzle 14 and the air nozzle 15 integrally with the base material 1 in the front-rear direction.
In the present embodiment, the feed member 16 that integrally includes the plasma nozzle 14 and the air nozzle 15 is used as the moving means for moving the plasma nozzle 14 and the air nozzle 15 relative to the substrate 1. It is not a thing. For example, the conveying means for conveying the substrate 1 may be a moving means, and the plasma nozzle 14 and the air nozzle 15 may be fixed positions. Moreover, you may provide the means to move the base material 1, the plasma nozzle 14, and the air nozzle 15, respectively.
In the present embodiment, air is used as the feed power of the feed member 16, but it is not particularly limited. Of course, it is also possible to drive the feed member electrically.

  The control means 20 can store various programs such as a control program for controlling each part of the plasma processing apparatus 10, and can develop and execute these programs. The control means 20 may actually be configured such that a CPU, ROM, RAM, HDD, and the like are connected to each other via a bus, or may be configured of a one-chip LSI or the like. The control means 20 of this embodiment stores the said program in a personal computer. The control means 20 controls gas supply to the feed member 16, the high frequency power supply 12, the air supply unit 21, and the reaction vessel 13 as moving means for the plasma nozzle 14 and the air nozzle 15 based on a control program stored in advance. The operation of the gas supply means 11 can be controlled.

  Next, a specific application example of the plasma processing apparatus 10 according to the present embodiment will be described with reference to FIG. In an application example to be described later, as shown in FIG. 2, the sealing surface of the base material 1 is plasma-treated in advance when forming the engine seal structure as an assembly process of the engine component after the machining process of the engine component. Thereafter, FIPG (Formed In Place Gasket) is applied to the sealing surface of the base material 1 and parts (workpieces) are assembled through the FIPG. An example in which the plasma processing apparatus 10 is introduced into the plasma processing step in this assembly step will be described.

(Application example)
In general, as one cause of engine oil leakage in an engine, there is a FIPG (seal material) adhesion failure on a seal surface. This is considered to be caused by the lack of hydrophilicity of the seal surface. As a countermeasure, there is a method of performing plasma treatment for improving the hydrophilicity of the seal surface. In this plasma treatment, if there is a small amount of dirt, such as engine oil, it has a cleaning ability to remove it, but if a large amount of dirt, such as engine oil dripped due to scattering, adheres to the seal surface, The dirt cannot be removed and the ability to improve hydrophilicity is also reduced. Therefore, at present, when a conventional plasma processing apparatus is used as shown in FIG. 3, a hand-wiping cleaning process is provided before the plasma processing process. Further, since there is a risk that dirt adheres between the hand cleaning process and the plasma treatment process, a dirt adhesion preventing means (for example, a cover for preventing dirt adhesion) is used. Thus, when the conventional plasma processing apparatus is used, a hand wiping cleaning process and a dirt prevention means are required. In this application example, an example in which the plasma processing apparatus 10 of this embodiment is introduced instead of the conventional plasma processing apparatus will be described.

  In an assembling process including a plasma processing process using the plasma processing apparatus 10, an unillustrated part (work) is assembled to the base material 1 as follows.

  As shown in FIG. 2, the assembly process includes a plasma processing process, a FIPG application process, and a component assembly process. In the assembling step, first, as a plasma treatment step, the seal surface of the surface 1a of the base material 1, that is, the portion to be the FIPG application surface is subjected to plasma treatment. This plasma treatment is a hydrophilicity improvement treatment for surface modification performed in the atmosphere and near atmospheric pressure. By performing this treatment, the hydrophilicity and adhesiveness of the surface 1a are improved, and then FIPG is applied to the sealing surface of the surface 1a of the substrate 1 as a FIPG application step, and the FIPG is applied to the surface 1a of the substrate 1. It can be firmly adhered to the sealing surface.

  The plasma processing process is a plasma processing process using the plasma processing apparatus 10. In the plasma processing step, when the substrate 1 is subjected to plasma processing by the plasma processing apparatus 10, first, the substrate 1 is carried into a predetermined position below the movable range of the plasma nozzle 14 and the air nozzle 15 and positioned and fixed. . Thereafter, in the plasma processing step, the air nozzle 15 blows air 6 onto the surface 1a of the substrate 1 while the plasma nozzle 14 and the air nozzle 15 are integrally moved relative to the substrate 1 by the feeding member 16 (feeding step). Then, the plasma 5 is sprayed onto the surface 1a of the substrate 1 by the plasma nozzle 14 to perform plasma processing (plasma spraying process).

  In the air cleaning step, the air nozzle 15 is moved forward obliquely from the air nozzle 15 while the air nozzle 15 is moved relative to the base material 1 in the relative movement direction forward (rightward in FIG. 1) by the feed member 16 (feed step). Spraying downward, the dirt (for example, engine oil shown in FIG. 1) on the surface 1a of the substrate 1 facing the air nozzle 15 is blown away for cleaning.

  In the plasma spraying step, the plasma nozzle 14 is moved from the plasma nozzle 14 by moving the plasma nozzle 14 forward relative to the base material 1 in the relative movement direction (rightward in FIG. 1) by the feed member 16 (feeding step). By spraying downward in an atmospheric pressure atmosphere, the surface 1a of the substrate 1 facing the plasma nozzle 14 is irradiated with plasma 5, and the surface 1a is subjected to plasma treatment. The plasma treatment process is thus completed, and the process proceeds to the FIPG application process.

  The FIPG application process is a process in which a predetermined amount of FIPG is applied by a FIPG application means (not shown) to the sealing surface of the surface 1a of the substrate 1 that has been plasma-treated by the plasma treatment process. After completion of the FIPG application process, the process proceeds to the part assembly process.

  The component assembling step is a step of assembling the component by bonding and fixing a component (not shown) via the FIPG to the seal surface of the surface 1a of the base material 1 coated with FIPG in the FIPG applying step. Thus, the engine parts are assembled by the parts assembling process, and the assembling process is completed.

  As in this application example, the air nozzle 15 is provided on the front side of the plasma nozzle 14 and is configured to be relatively movable with respect to the base material 1, so that the process using the conventional plasma processing apparatus shown in FIG. 3 is performed. The cleaning process and the plasma treatment process do not need to be performed separately, and the cleaning process and the plasma treatment process can be integrated and executed in a single process, eliminating the time lag between the cleaning process and the plasma treatment process in the conventional process. Can do. In addition, it is possible to abolish the hand wiping cleaning process and the dirt adhesion preventing means necessary when performing the conventional plasma processing process.

  According to the plasma processing apparatus 10 and the plasma processing method using the plasma processing apparatus 10 according to the present embodiment, the substrate 1 can be cleaned with the air 6 and the plasma processing in one step, and the conventional plasma processing apparatus The cleaning process (hand-wiping cleaning) required when using the can be omitted, and the time of the cleaning process can be reduced.

  According to the plasma processing apparatus 10 according to the present embodiment, the driving source of the feed member 16 when the plasma nozzle 14 and the air nozzle 15 are integrally transported is the air 6, and the supply source of the air 6 is supplied to the air nozzle 15. By providing the air supply member 17 that is the same as the commercial air 6, the facility can be simplified. In addition, since only air is used as a drive source for the feed member 16 and electricity is not used, the transport mechanism for the feed member 16 can be configured with inexpensive equipment, and the running cost of the apparatus can be reduced.

  According to the plasma processing apparatus 10 according to the present embodiment, the air nozzle 15 is disposed in front of the relative movement direction with respect to the base material 1, and the plasma nozzle 14 is disposed in the rear of the relative movement direction with respect to the base material 1. Immediately after 1 is cleaned with air 6, plasma 5 can be sprayed onto the substrate 1 to perform plasma treatment. Thereby, it is possible to prevent the dirt from reattaching between the cleaning process and the plasma process.

  According to the present invention, by adding an air nozzle in front of the plasma nozzle, it is possible to perform a rough treatment of a large amount of dirt, and to remove the dirt to a level at which plasma treatment is possible. The cleaning process (hand-wiping cleaning process and the like) that is the previous process can be eliminated, and a simplified apparatus configuration can be provided. Further, in the present invention, as a configuration for minimizing the cost increase due to the addition of the air nozzle, only air is used without using electricity, and an air nozzle that functions as an air blow for blowing dirt and a feed that functions as a nozzle feeding device are used. It is possible to provide a device configuration in which primary air is gathered into one by moving together with members and branching air into two systems on the secondary side of the device.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Base material 5 Plasma 6 Air 10 Plasma processing apparatus 14 Plasma nozzle 15 Air nozzle 16 Feed member 17 Air supply member

Claims (4)

In a plasma processing apparatus for performing plasma processing on a substrate,
A plasma nozzle for spraying plasma on the substrate;
An air nozzle that blows air onto the substrate;
A plasma processing apparatus, comprising: a feed member that integrally holds the plasma nozzle and the air nozzle and moves the plasma nozzle relative to the substrate.   The plasma processing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising an air supply member that supplies air blown from the air nozzle to the base material and air that drives the feed member.   3. The plasma according to claim 1, wherein the air nozzle is disposed in front of the relative movement direction with respect to the base material, and the plasma nozzle is disposed in the rear of the relative movement direction with respect to the base material. Processing equipment. A plasma processing method using the plasma processing apparatus according to claim 3,
A plasma process, wherein the plasma nozzle and the air nozzle are integrally moved relative to the base material while air is blown to the base material by the air nozzle and plasma is blown to the base material by the plasma nozzle. Method.

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