JP2778955B2 - Continuous multi-stage ion plating equipment - Google Patents

Description

Description: TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to a continuous multi-stage ion plating apparatus. More specifically, the present invention relates to a continuous multi-stage ion plating apparatus for continuously forming a high-quality film on a substrate surface at a high speed. (Background Art) Plastics, metals, glasses, ceramics, and other substrates or articles of various shapes on the surface of which thin films of metals, alloys, inorganics, ceramics, carbon, or organic polymers are formed, use conductive films, insulating materials, etc. It is expected to be applied to various uses such as films, optical thin films, protective films, electronic devices, and decorations, and few of them have already been put to practical use. As a method and an apparatus for forming such a thin film, there is known a method and an apparatus for ionizing evaporated particles from an evaporation source placed in a vacuum evaporation apparatus by glow discharge. This is a technique called ion plating. It is also known that this ion plating is classified into a holosocard type and a high-frequency excitation type. Although these ion plating technologies are excellent as thin film formation technologies in the gas phase, they can be used for continuous thin film formation, wide substrates, and even long films.
Many problems still remain as a technique and an apparatus for uniformly forming a stable high-quality thin film. For example, in order to uniformly form a thin film on the surface of a wide, long film or sheet, a thin film having uniform quality and excellent adhesion in both the width direction and the length direction is used. Alternatively, it is necessary to efficiently manufacture the sheet while continuously moving the sheet. However, in the case of a hollow cathode, there is a problem that contamination and damage of a device such as a cathode portion are inevitable, lack thermal stability, and heat generation of a substrate film or a sheet is inevitable. For this reason, it has been difficult to uniformly and efficiently obtain a thin film of excellent quality on a continuously moving film surface. In the case of high-frequency excitation type ion plating, although it is extremely effective to stably obtain a thin film of excellent quality, for example, in the case of a long, wide, large-area film, a thin film is used. Has a disadvantage in terms of productivity for efficiently producing the same. Furthermore, in any of the conventional hollow cathode and high-frequency excitation types, a desired thin film is formed only on a part of a film or a large-area substrate, and this part can be coated continuously, or different evaporation source materials can be used. It has been difficult to form a composite film or a multilayer film using such a method. (Object of the Invention) It is an object of the present invention to provide an ion plating apparatus for continuously and efficiently forming a high-quality thin film made in view of such circumstances. More specifically, the present invention provides an ion plating apparatus for forming a thin film on a large-area, high-speed moving substrate such as a film or a sheet, and also effective for forming a composite film or a multilayer film. It is intended to be. DISCLOSURE OF THE INVENTION In order to achieve the above object, an apparatus of the present invention comprises a plurality of divided vacuum chambers, one or more pressure gradient plasma guns and an evaporation hearth provided in each vacuum chamber. And a substrate holding / moving means for continuously moving the substrate while holding the substrate, wherein a thin film is continuously and rapidly formed on the surface of the substrate. Further, in the apparatus of the present invention, a hollow cathode and / or a high-frequency excitation type plasma generating means are provided in an appropriate fractionated vacuum chamber together with a pressure gradient type plasma gun so that a thin film can be formed in a complex manner. Included devices are also included. The pressure gradient type plasma gun used in the apparatus of the present invention performs an electric discharge by interposing an intermediate electrode between a cathode and an anode, maintaining the cathode region at about 1 Torr, and maintaining the anode region at about 10 ^-3 Torr. It is. The plasma generated by the discharge, for example, an Ar ion flow can be moved in a band shape in the vacuum chamber and converged on the hearth portion. The plasma can be flattened into a sheet by applying a magnetic field. Normally, the plasma flow emitted laterally to the hearth, that is, from the plasma gun provided on the side wall of the bell jar, is bent almost directly above the hearth placed upward and converges on the hearth. Let it. By this convergence, evaporation and ionization of the evaporation source material as the thin film forming material are performed. Instead of converging the plasma flow to the hearth portion, the evaporation source material may be evaporated by resistance heating or the like so that the evaporated particles cross the plasma flow. According to the method and apparatus of the present invention, the plasma gun is free from contamination, the reaction speed is high, the plasma is stabilized, and a uniform thin film can be formed. In addition, by deforming the plasma into a sheet, it becomes easy to form a uniform thin film in the width direction such as a wide film. The present invention realizes a more efficient and functional method and an apparatus therefor in the ion plating method using a pressure gradient plasma gun as described above. Further, in the present invention, a plurality of hearths may be used, and a magnetic field may be applied to the plurality of hearths. This method and apparatus utilize the magnetic field dependence of the plasma flow and the low-temperature plasma flow found by the inventor of the present invention. That is, the plasma flow is attracted and converged or repelled by the magnetic field, and by utilizing this phenomenon, the plasma flow can be effectively controlled. The apparatus of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. FIG. 1 is an example of an apparatus in which a plurality of vacuum chambers are provided in series. In the apparatus of FIG. 1, a vacuum chamber (1)
(2) and (3) are arranged in series. Each of the vacuum chambers (1), (2) and (3) is separated by electromagnetic shields (4) and (5). Instead of the fractionation by the electromagnetic shield, the vacuum chamber bell jars may be provided separately. In this case, a slit is provided on the side wall of the bell jar for the entry and exit of the substrate, and the bell jar can be kept airtight by an air shield or the like. In the example of FIG. 1, each of the vacuum chambers (1), (2) and (3) has a pressure gradient type plasma gun (6) (7).
(8) Hearth for holding and evaporating the evaporating substance (9)
(10) and (11) are provided. One or more plasma guns are provided so as to face the direction of travel of the substrate. Alternatively, the plasma gun may be provided on a side surface of the substrate along the traveling direction of the substrate. It can be provided on one side or both sides. Of course, one or more guns are provided. The evaporation hearth may be heated and evaporated by an evaporation means using resistance heating, high-frequency induction heating, or electron beam irradiation. The vacuum chambers (1), (2), and (3) are provided with a vacuum chamber exhaust unit and an inert gas and / or reactive gas introducing unit as appropriate. The vacuum chambers (1), (2), and (3) are used to sequentially or intermittently move the substrate to be processed and the holding means in order to sequentially move the vacuum chambers (1), (2), and (3). A moving means is provided. In such an apparatus, the plasma flow from the pressure gradient plasma guns (6), (7), (8) performs the evaporation and ionization of the evaporation source material of the corresponding evaporation hearth. At this time, a magnetic field may be applied to the hearth. The application of a magnetic field promotes plasma convergence and its evaporative ionization. FIG. 2 shows an example of an apparatus when a long film is used as a substrate. In this apparatus, the means for holding and moving the substrate includes guide rolls (12), (13) and (1).
4) (15) (16) (17) (18) (19), a delivery roll (20) and a take-up roll (21). In this case, a cooling means can be provided on the upper surface of the film. In the method and apparatus of the present invention, there is no particular limitation on the substrate to be processed. As the thin film forming substance, any of commonly used metals, alloys, ceramics, carbon, and polymers can be used. The reaction pressure can be in the range of about 1 × 10 ⁻⁴ to 10 ⁻² Torr. Appropriate inert gas or reactive gas such as argon, helium, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen and organic substances can be used. The discharge voltage is, for example, 50 to 100 V, and the current is appropriately selected depending on the evaporating substance. When using a heat-resistant plastic such as polyester, polysulfone, polyamide, or polyimide as a substrate,
A conductive transparent film such as ITO can be coated with a thickness of 500 to 1500 A at a film width of 100 to 500 mm and a moving speed of 6 m / min to 30 m / min. Of course, various thin films can be efficiently formed without being limited to the conductive film. Further, the apparatus of the present invention can appropriately use a means of hollow cathode plasma or high frequency excitation plasma. The combination can be selected in consideration of the quality of the thin film, production efficiency, and the like. The vacuum chamber is not limited to the series system shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, and each processing area is set on a circle so that multi-stage ion plating is performed during one round of the substrate. It may be. It goes without saying that various other embodiments are included in the present invention. Further, it is also possible to appropriately perform a pretreatment of the substrate by plasma bombardment. In the apparatus of the present invention, by changing the evaporation source materials, it is also possible to efficiently form a multilayer film.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 and FIG. 2 show an example of the apparatus of the present invention. The numbers in the figure indicate the following. 1,2,3… Vacuum chamber 4,5… Electromagnetic shield 6,7,8… Plasma gun 9,10,11… Haas 12,13,14,15,16,17,18,19 …… Guide roll 20 …… Sending roll 21 …… Winding roll

──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continuation of the front page (56) References JP-A-58-73770 (JP, A) JP-A-60-141869 (JP, A) JP-A-56-29844 (JP, A) JP-A 57-73 126825 (JP, A) JP-A-58-85932 (JP, A) "Vacuum" 27 [2] (1984) P. 64-71 (58) Fields investigated (Int. Cl. ⁶ , DB name) C23C14 / 00-14/58 JOIS

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] A plurality of fractionated vacuum chambers, one or more pressure gradient plasma guns and evaporation hearths provided in each of the vacuum chambers, and a substrate holding and moving means for continuously moving while holding the substrate are provided. A continuous multi-stage ion plating apparatus characterized in that a thin film is continuously and rapidly formed on a substrate surface. 2. With a pressure gradient plasma gun, a holo cathode,
The continuous multi-stage ion plating apparatus according to claim 1, wherein at least one or both of the high-frequency excitation type plasma generation means are provided.