JP2015137415A - Large-area atomic layer deposition apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a batch processing type large-area atomic layer deposition apparatus that can carry out an atomic layer vapor deposition process for many large-area glass substrates.SOLUTION: A large-area atomic layer deposition apparatus includes: a vacuum chamber 100 in which a vacuum can be produced; a partition valve formed on right and left side faces of the vacuum chamber; a process gas supply part 110 which is arranged upstream from the vacuum chamber, and jets a process gas as a laminar flow from above to below; a gas suction/discharge part 120 which is arranged below the vacuum chamber, and sucks a gas in the vacuum chamber and discharges it; a cassette 130 in which many substrates are vertically loaded and which is arranged between the process gas supply part and gas suction/discharge part so as to form an internal chamber for atomic layer vapor deposition process. Further, the large-area atomic layer deposition apparatus includes a cassette contact part 140 which is arranged above the gas suction/discharge part in the vacuum chamber, and elevates a cassette entering the vacuum chamber to bring the cassette into contact with the process gas supply part.

Description

  The present invention relates to a large area atomic layer deposition apparatus, and more particularly to a batch processing type large area atomic layer deposition apparatus capable of performing an atomic layer deposition process on a large number of large area glass substrates.

  Recently, the depletion of fossil energy has been increasing and efforts have been made on renewable energy such as sunlight and wind power as energy that can replace fossil energy. In particular, in the field of photovoltaic power generation, development of thin-film solar cell technology for forming solar cells on large-area glass substrates under the current situation where crystalline solar cells that form solar cells on silicon wafers have become mainstream. Has been done constantly.

  In particular, thin-film solar cells have recently been rapidly improved in power generation efficiency, can be manufactured as large-area glass substrates, have low manufacturing costs, and can be installed on the outer walls of buildings. It is gradually attracting attention because there is. In the process of manufacturing such a thin film solar cell, an atomic layer deposition process on a large area glass substrate is inevitably performed.

  However, conventionally, there has been a limit that an atomic layer deposition apparatus capable of forming a uniform thin film in a short process time on a large area glass substrate has not been developed.

  The technical problem to be solved by the present invention is to provide a batch processing type large area atomic layer deposition apparatus capable of performing an atomic layer deposition process for uniformly forming a thin film on a large number of large area glass substrates. It is.

  A batch processing type large area atomic layer deposition apparatus according to the present invention for achieving the technical problem described above includes a vacuum chamber capable of forming a vacuum therein, and gate valves respectively formed on left and right side surfaces of the vacuum chamber. A process gas supply unit that is disposed on the upper side of the vacuum chamber and injects a process gas as a laminar flow from the upper side to the lower side; and a gas that is disposed on the lower side of the vacuum chamber and is inside the vacuum chamber. An internal chamber for an atomic layer deposition process, wherein a plurality of substrates are vertically mounted and disposed between the process gas supply unit and the gas intake / exhaust unit. And a cassette that is disposed above the gas suction / exhaust portion in the interior of the vacuum chamber, and the cassette that enters the interior of the vacuum chamber is raised to close the process gas supply portion. And a cassette contact portion to be.

  In the present invention, the cassette preferably has a structure in which an upper surface and a lower surface are opened.

  In addition, the cassette is preferably provided with a substrate placement slit that is placed at a predetermined interval with a large number of substrates tilted.

  Further, the substrate mounting slit is disposed at the upper part of the cassette, and is provided at a side surface supporting part for supporting one side surface of the inclined substrate and at a lower part of the cassette, and supports a part of the lower surface of the substrate. It is preferable to include a lower surface support portion.

  Further, in the present invention, the process gas supply unit includes a process gas carry-in unit that feeds process gas into the vacuum chamber from a process gas supply source disposed outside the vacuum chamber, and the process gas carry-in unit. A process gas diffusion part for diffusing the process gas that is carried in, and a buffer space that is disposed below the process gas diffusion part and forms a predetermined buffer space between the process gas diffusion part and the upper end of the cassette And a forming part.

  Furthermore, in the present invention, it is preferable that the process gas diffusion part and the buffer space forming part are defined in a number of blocks.

  Further, in the present invention, the gas suction / discharge section forms a predetermined lower buffer space between the discharge pump for sucking and discharging the gas inside the vacuum chamber to the outside, and between the discharge pump and the cassette. And a lower buffer space forming part.

  Furthermore, it is preferable that a heating unit is further provided on the side surface of the vacuum chamber.

  Furthermore, the large-area atomic layer deposition apparatus of the present invention is configured such that a cassette formed on one side of the vacuum chamber and on which a plurality of substrates to be processed is placed is placed in the vacuum chamber via the partition valve. A carry-in chamber for carrying in, and a carry-out chamber for carrying out a cassette formed on the other side of the vacuum chamber, on which a plurality of completed substrates are placed, to the outside of the vacuum chamber via the partition valve And a cassette returning unit that connects the carry-out chamber and the carry-in chamber, and moves and supplies a cassette discharged from the carry-out chamber to the carry-in chamber.

  The carry-in chamber preferably further includes a substrate heating unit that heats a plurality of substrates to be processed to a predetermined temperature.

  According to the present invention, it is possible not only to form a uniform thin film on the entire surface of a large area glass substrate in a state where a large number of large area glass substrates are loaded, but also to a large number of large area glasses loaded together. A unique effect is obtained that a thin film is uniformly formed on the substrate.

  In particular, as described above, since the atomic layer deposition process is simultaneously performed on a large number of large-area substrates, the process time for one substrate is greatly shortened, and the productivity of the thin-film solar cell is greatly improved. There is an advantage that can be made.

It is a figure which shows the layout of the large area atomic layer vapor deposition apparatus by one Embodiment of this invention. It is a figure which shows the structure inside the vacuum chamber by one Embodiment of this invention. It is a figure which shows the structure of the cassette by one Embodiment of this invention. It is sectional drawing which shows the partial structure of the cassette by one Embodiment of this invention. It is sectional drawing which shows the structure of the process gas supply part by one Embodiment of this invention. It is a figure which shows the block structure of the process gas supply part by one Embodiment of this invention.

  Hereinafter, specific embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

  As shown in FIG. 1, the large area atomic layer deposition apparatus 1 according to this embodiment includes a vacuum chamber 100, a carry-in chamber 200, a carry-out chamber 300, and a cassette return unit 400.

  Here, the vacuum chamber 100 is a chamber in which an atomic layer deposition process is performed, and the carry-in chamber 200 carries in a cassette on which a large number of substrates to be processed are placed in the vacuum chamber 100. The carry-out chamber 300 is a chamber that receives from the vacuum chamber 100 a cassette on which a large number of substrates that have been processed are placed.

  In the vacuum chamber 100, it is preferable that the atomic layer deposition process is performed in a vacuum atmosphere, and that the process is maintained at a considerably high temperature because the process time can be shortened. For this reason, while the atomic layer deposition process is performed in the vacuum chamber 100, a cassette loaded with a large number of substrates to be processed is supplied from the outside to the loading chamber 200. Gas is exhausted to lower the pressure inside the chamber, and a preheating operation is performed on the substrate carried into the carry-in chamber 200. When the substrate is preheated in this manner, the process time of the subsequent atomic layer deposition process performed in the vacuum chamber 100 is shortened, and a uniform thin film deposition effect on a large number of substrates can be obtained.

  For this reason, it is preferable that a substrate heating unit (not shown) capable of uniformly heating a large number of substrates loaded in the cassette is further provided in the carry-in chamber 200.

  When the cassette in the vacuum chamber 100 is discharged to the carry-out chamber 300 in a state where the preparation work for the substrate to be processed in the carry-in chamber 200 is completed in this manner, the cassette valve of the carry-in chamber 200 is separated from the cassette valve 600. Then, it is carried into the vacuum chamber 100 and a subsequent atomic layer deposition process is performed.

  On the other hand, in the carry-out chamber 300, after receiving the cassette on which the substrate having been completed is placed from the vacuum chamber 100, the gate valve 700 between the vacuum chamber 100 and the carry-out chamber 300 is shut off. The cassette and the substrate placed thereon are cooled, and a gas is injected into the chamber to raise the internal pressure of the chamber to the atmospheric pressure level. Next, the cassette is discharged to the outside.

  The cassette discharged to the outside is transported to the carry-in chamber 200 side via the cassette return unit 400, and the substrate whose process is completed by the substrate transfer robot 500 disposed on the carry-in chamber 200 side is the other substrate. The substrate to be transferred for the process and to be processed is loaded again in the cassette.

  Of course, in some cases, after the substrate transfer robot 500 is also disposed on the side of the carry-out chamber 300 and the process is completed, the empty cassette is transferred via the cassette return unit 400 after transferring the substrate first. You may return to the chamber 200 side.

  Next, the vacuum chamber 100 is provided with components for an atomic layer deposition process. This will be described in detail below.

  The vacuum chamber 100 includes a chamber having a structure capable of forming a vacuum therein. The vacuum chamber 100 is provided with gate valves 600 and 700, a process gas supply unit 110, a gas suction / discharge unit 120, a cassette 130, a cassette contact unit 140, and the like.

  First, the gate valves 600 and 700 are disposed between the vacuum chamber 100 and the carry-in chamber 200 and between the vacuum chamber 100 and the carry-out chamber 300, respectively. And the gate formed between the vacuum chamber 100 and the unloading chamber 300.

  Next, as shown in FIG. 2, the process gas supply unit 110 is a component that is disposed on the upper side of the vacuum chamber 100 and injects a process gas as a laminar flow from the upper side to the lower side. Therefore, in this embodiment, the process gas supply unit 110 is specifically configured to include a process gas carry-in unit 112, a process gas diffusion unit 114, and a buffer space formation unit 116.

First, the process gas carry-in unit 112 is a component that supplies process gas to the inside of the vacuum chamber 100 from a process gas supply source 150 disposed outside the vacuum chamber 100. Here, the process gas may vary depending on an atomic layer deposition process to be performed. For example, in order to deposit a ZrO ₂ layer by an atomic layer deposition method, first, as a gas supply source, a Zr supply source, An N ₂ supply source as an O ₃ supply source and a purge gas supply source is provided, and the process gas carry-in section 112 carries these first and second reaction gases and purge gas into a process gas diffusion section 114 described later. is there. At this time, the process gases may be controlled so as not to be mixed with each other, and a route to be carried into the process gas diffusion unit 114 may be defined and used.

  The process gas diffusion unit 114 is a component that diffuses the process gas carried in from the process gas carry-in unit 112. That is, the process gas carried into the vacuum chamber 110 from the process gas carrying-in part 112 is diffused with a sufficient width so that an atomic layer deposition process can be performed on a large-area glass substrate, and the diffused process gas is diffused into the substrate. Injecting is possible so that it can move while maintaining a laminar flow in the space between them. For this purpose, the process gas diffusion part 114 is connected to the process gas carry-in part 112 and is formed to be in communication with the process gas diffusion path 113 formed in a horizontally long shape and the process gas diffusion path 113. A plurality of injection holes 115 for injecting process gas in the lower direction. At this time, as shown in FIG. 5, the numerous injection holes 115 are provided at predetermined intervals.

  Next, as shown in FIG. 5, the buffer space forming part 116 is disposed below the process gas diffusion part 114, and a predetermined buffer is provided between the process gas diffusion part 114 and the upper end of the cassette 130. It is a component that forms a space. Here, the “buffer space” means a process gas distribution space in which a process gas distribution space injected and diffused from one injection hole 115 is injected and diffused from an adjacent injection hole 115 as shown in FIG. This is a space that is formed wider than the overlapping width d1 and in which a sufficient diffusion width d2 is secured so that the process gas injected from the plurality of injection holes 115 can form a uniform laminar flow. Accordingly, the vertical width of the buffer space forming portion 116 must be formed wider than the width d1 where the process gases injected from the adjacent injection holes 115 overlap.

  As described above, the process gas that is uniformly diffused by the buffer space forming unit 116 and maintains the laminar flow flows the laminar flow into the space between the substrates S placed on the cassette 130 at a predetermined interval. Enter and pass while maintaining. Therefore, as shown in FIG. 2, the buffer space forming part 116 is defined by a plurality of partition plates 117 that are partitioned at equal intervals with the interval between the substrates S placed on the cassette 130. As shown in FIG. 2, the lower end of the partition plate 117 is precisely engaged with the upper end of the substrate S placed on the cassette 130, and the space defined by the buffer space forming portion 116 is similarly a substrate. It leads to the space defined by S. For this reason, the process gas is moved while the layered flow of the process gas formed by the buffer space forming unit 116 is maintained as it is in the space between the substrates S, and in the process, the atoms of the process gas are moved to the surface of the substrate S. A layer deposition process is performed.

  On the other hand, in the large-area atomic layer deposition apparatus 1 according to this embodiment, as shown in FIG. 6, the process gas diffusion portion 114 and the buffer space forming portion 116 are integrally formed as an injection module, and each injection module includes a large number of injection modules. Defined in blocks. Thus, if a large number of injection module blocks 118 are expanded and combined to form the process gas supply unit 110 as a whole, there is an advantage that it is possible to cope with various sizes of substrates or the number of substrates. That is, when the substrate becomes larger, the ejection module block 118 can be extended and expanded vertically, and when the number of substrates is increased, the ejection module block 118 can be expanded and expanded laterally.

  Further, as shown in FIG. 2, the gas suction / discharge unit 120 is a component that is disposed below the vacuum chamber 100 and sucks and discharges the gas inside the vacuum chamber 100. All the process gas supplied by the process gas supply unit 110 and passing through the space between the substrates S placed on the cassette 130 is sucked through the gas suction / discharge unit 120 and discharged to the outside of the vacuum chamber 100. It is done. For this reason, in this embodiment, the gas suction / discharge section 120 can be composed of a discharge pump (not shown) and a lower buffer space forming section 122. The exhaust pump is a component that sucks and discharges the gas inside the vacuum chamber 100 to the outside, and may be disposed in the vacuum chamber 100 singly or in large numbers. To the vacuum chamber 100.

  Next, the lower buffer space forming unit 122 is similar to the buffer space forming unit 116 described above, and the process gas of the layered flow that has passed through the space between the substrates S below the cassette 130 is the space between the substrates S. The lower buffer space is provided so as to move a predetermined distance while maintaining the laminar flow after passing through. Therefore, similarly to the buffer space forming unit 116, the lower buffer space forming unit 122 is formed with a lower partition plate 123 having the same width as the space between the substrates S, and the upper end of the lower partition plate 123 is The process gas of the laminar flow that is accurately engaged with the lower end of the substrate S and passes through the space between the substrates S is allowed to pass while maintaining the laminar flow.

  Thus, maintaining the uniform laminar flow of the process gas up to the lower space off the substrate S by the lower buffer space forming portion 122 can form a uniform thin film also on the lower end portion of the large area substrate. There is an effect that can be done.

  On the other hand, in this embodiment, the cassette 130 has a structure optimized to perform an atomic layer deposition process on a large number of large area substrates. That is, the cassette 130 vertically mounts a number of substrates S and is disposed between the process gas supply unit 110 and the gas suction / discharge unit 120 to form an internal chamber for an atomic layer deposition process. To do.

  Therefore, in this embodiment, the cassette 130 has a structure in which an upper surface and a lower surface are opened. An upper surface of the cassette 130 is in close contact with the process gas supply unit 110, and a lower surface thereof is in close contact with the gas intake / exhaust unit 120, and an atomic layer is formed by the process gas supply unit 110, the gas intake / exhaust unit 120, and a side wall of the cassette 130. An inner chamber for the deposition process is constructed.

  In the large-area atomic layer deposition apparatus 1 according to this embodiment, the process gas moves only in the inner chamber formed by the process gas supply unit 110, the gas suction / discharge unit 120, and the cassette 130, and each process gas is transferred. The atomic layer deposition process can be performed quickly while supplying continuously.

  As described above, the multiple substrates S placed on the cassette 130 are placed with the same width as the space partitioned by the partition plate 117 of the buffer space forming unit 116.

  In this embodiment, in order to maintain equal intervals, a large number of substrates S are preferably placed at predetermined intervals while being inclined in the same direction as shown in FIG. Therefore, the cassette 130 is provided with a substrate placement slit 132 so that a large number of substrates S are placed in a tilted direction.

  As shown in FIG. 3, the substrate mounting slit 132 is disposed at the upper portion of the cassette 130, and supports a side surface 131 that supports one side surface of the inclined substrate upper portion, and as shown in FIG. A lower surface support portion 133 that is disposed at a lower portion of the cassette 130 and supports a part of the lower surface of the substrate S. At this time, it is preferable that damage preventing members 135 and 137 are provided at portions of the side surface support portion 131 and the lower surface support portion 133 that are in direct contact with the substrate S in order to prevent damage to the substrate. The prevention members 135 and 137 may be made of a material such as Teflon (registered trademark), for example.

  In addition, as shown in FIG. 2, the cassette contact portion 140 is disposed above the gas suction / exhaust portion 120 in the vacuum chamber 100, and moves the cassette 130 entering the vacuum chamber 100. It is a component that raises the gas intake / exhaust part 120 and the cassette 130 and brings the cassette 130 and the process gas supply part 110 into close contact with each other.

  When the cassette 130 is carried into the vacuum chamber 100 from the carry-in chamber 200, the cassette 130 is carried in while being moved horizontally by a roller 160 as shown in FIG. For this reason, the carried-in state is a state in which a predetermined interval is separated from the process gas supply unit 110 and the gas suction / discharge unit 120. When the cassette close-up part 140 lifts the gas suction / discharge part 120 upward in a state where the cassette 130 has been moved horizontally to a predetermined location, first, the gas suction / discharge part 120 is brought into close contact with the cassette 130, and then When the gas suction / discharge unit 120 is lifted, the upper surface of the cassette 130 is brought into close contact with the lower end of the process gas supply unit 110.

  In this state, the internal chamber for the atomic layer deposition process is completed. At this time, it is preferable that a sealing member 170 is further provided so that no gap is generated between the cassette 130 and the gas suction / discharge unit 120 and between the cassette 130 and the process gas supply unit 110.

  On the other hand, after the atomic layer deposition process is completed, the cassette contact part 140 moves the gas suction / discharge part 120 downward again to separate the cassette 130 from the process gas supply part 110 and the gas suction / discharge part 130. . Next, when the cassette 130 is in a state where it can freely move horizontally, it is unloaded using the unloading chamber 300.

  Finally, a heating unit 180 may be further provided on the side surface of the vacuum chamber 100. In the atomic layer deposition process, since the substrate and the process gas must be heated to a predetermined temperature or higher, the heating unit 180 plays a role of heating the inside of the chamber 100 to a predetermined temperature or higher.

1: Large-area atomic layer deposition apparatus 100 according to an embodiment of the present invention 100: vacuum chamber 200: carry-in chamber 300: carry-out chamber 400: cassette return unit 500: substrate transfer robot 600, 700: gate valve 110: process gas supply unit 120: Gas suction / discharge unit 130: Cassette 140: Cassette contact portion S: Substrate

Claims (11)

A vacuum chamber in which a vacuum can be formed;
Gate valves respectively formed on the left and right side surfaces of the vacuum chamber;
A process gas supply unit disposed above the vacuum chamber and injecting a process gas as a laminar flow from the upper side to the lower side;
A gas intake / exhaust section that is disposed below the vacuum chamber and sucks and discharges the gas inside the vacuum chamber;
A cassette that vertically mounts a plurality of substrates and is disposed between the process gas supply unit and the gas suction and discharge unit to form an internal chamber for an atomic layer deposition process;
A cassette contact portion that is disposed on the upper side of the gas suction / discharge portion inside the vacuum chamber and raises the cassette entering the inside of the vacuum chamber to closely contact the process gas supply portion;
A large-area atomic layer deposition apparatus. The cassette is
2. The large area atomic layer deposition apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the upper surface and the lower surface are open. The cassette includes
3. The large-area atomic layer deposition apparatus according to claim 2, wherein a substrate mounting slit is provided for mounting a plurality of substrates at a predetermined interval in a tilted state. The substrate mounting slit is
A side surface support portion disposed on the cassette and supporting one side surface of the inclined substrate;
The large-area atomic layer deposition apparatus according to claim 3, further comprising: a lower surface support portion disposed at a lower portion of the cassette and supporting a part of the lower surface of the substrate. The process gas supply unit
A process gas carry-in section for supplying process gas into the vacuum chamber from a process gas supply source disposed outside the vacuum chamber;
A process gas diffusion part for diffusing the process gas carried in from the process gas carry-in part;
A buffer space forming part disposed below the process gas diffusion part and forming a predetermined buffer space between the process gas diffusion part and an upper end of the cassette;
The large-area atomic layer deposition apparatus according to claim 1, comprising:   6. The large area atomic layer deposition apparatus according to claim 5, wherein the process gas diffusion part and the buffer space forming part are defined in a number of blocks. The gas suction / discharge unit is
A discharge pump for sucking and discharging the gas inside the vacuum chamber to the outside;
A lower buffer space forming part for forming a predetermined lower buffer space between the discharge pump and the cassette;
The large-area atomic layer deposition apparatus according to claim 1, comprising: On the side of the vacuum chamber,
The large area atomic layer deposition apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a heating unit. A loading chamber that is formed on one side of the vacuum chamber and carries a cassette on which a plurality of substrates to be processed are placed into the vacuum chamber via the gate valve;
A carry-out chamber that is formed on the other side of the vacuum chamber and carries a cassette on which a plurality of completed substrates are placed to the outside of the vacuum chamber via the gate valve;
A cassette returning unit that connects the carry-out chamber and the carry-in chamber, and moves and supplies a cassette discharged from the carry-out chamber to the carry-in chamber;
The large-area atomic layer deposition apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising:   The large area atomic layer deposition apparatus according to claim 9, wherein the carry-in chamber further includes a substrate heating unit that heats a plurality of substrates to be processed to a predetermined temperature. The process gas diffusion part is
6. The large-area atomic layer deposition apparatus according to claim 5, having a structure in which different kinds of process gases are diffused independently.

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