JP3125191B1 - Excimer light irradiation device - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention provides an excimer light irradiation device that can easily design the shape and area of an irradiation surface. An electrode pair unit used for an excimer light irradiation device includes an inner electrode and an outer electrode arranged concentrically. A dielectric 3 is arranged on the outer peripheral side of the inner electrode 1. The discharge space 4 is formed between the dielectric 3 and the outer electrode 2. In the present invention, a small electrode pair unit 10 having a diameter of about 1 to 10 mm and a length of about 5 mm or less is placed in the excimer light generating rare gas-filled container 5 according to a desired area and shape so that the outer electrodes 2 are in contact with each other. For example, many are arranged in a honeycomb shape. As a result, the ratio (opening ratio) of the end face area of the discharge space 4 to the area of the excimer light extraction window 7 is increased, and the irradiation spots are reduced. Further, since the discharge distance of the electrode pair unit 10 is short, even if many of them are used, the power consumption can be reduced.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

The present invention relates to an excimer light irradiation device, and more particularly to an excimer light irradiation device suitable for surface light emission.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art It has been known that a dielectric barrier discharge lamp device using a rare gas excimer lamp is used as a sterilization and cleaning device or a curing device for paints and resins (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 7-169444). etc). However, in these devices, a discharge lamp that generates excimer light by dielectric barrier discharge and a lamp house that houses the discharge lamp are separately configured. In particular, when the discharge lamp has a structure in which electrodes are arranged outside a dielectric tube such as quartz and discharged inside the tube, and the generated excimer light is extracted from one end surface in the tube axis direction, it is not possible to irradiate a large area at the same time. Difficult and limited in use. Further, since the lamp and the lamp house are separately configured, the light loss is large, and the object to be irradiated cannot be directly irradiated, so that the cost is unavoidable for industrial use.

[0003]

DISCLOSURE OF THE INVENTION The present inventors dispose a plurality of pairs of rod-shaped electrodes directly facing each other via a dielectric in a lamp house, and form an excimer capable of surface emission in which the lamp and the lamp house are integrated. In a light irradiation device, a device in which a plurality of pairs of electrodes are arranged in parallel with respect to an excimer light extraction window has been proposed (Japanese Patent Application Nos. 10-159812 and 10-158812).
No. 159812). In this irradiation apparatus, the irradiation intensity was different between the electrode portion and the discharge portion, and uniform surface irradiation intensity was not always obtained despite surface emission. In order to improve these, an excimer light irradiation apparatus in which a plurality of pairs of rod-shaped electrodes are arranged in a staggered manner to enable substantially uniform irradiation over a wide range has been proposed (Japanese Patent Application No. 11-33421). In this irradiation device, a large volume is required for the staggered arrangement,
Enlargement of the entire apparatus was inevitable. In any case, in the irradiation device, even if the rod-shaped electrodes are arranged in a straight line or a staggered shape in parallel with the excimer light extraction window, the length of the rod-shaped electrodes themselves is limited. There was a limit in the length of the rod-shaped electrode. In addition, the shape of the surface light emission is actually limited to the upper shape, and there is a design restriction.

An object of the present invention is to solve the above-mentioned problems, and an object of the present invention is to provide an excimer light irradiation apparatus capable of freely designing the shape and area of surface light emission.

[0005]

An excimer light irradiating apparatus according to the present invention, which achieves the above object, comprises an inner electrode, a dielectric provided on a peripheral side of the inner electrode, and a predetermined discharge space from the dielectric. An electrode pair unit including the provided cylindrical outer electrode is disposed in the excimer light generating gas filling chamber, in the vertical direction with respect to the excimer light extraction window, in a plurality of stages in the horizontal direction, and the plurality of electrode pair units are Each outside
The electrodes are densely arranged so as to be in contact with each other .

In the present invention, for example, when a large number of electrode pair unit assemblies are used, the outer electrode is directly fixed to the inner surface of the excimer light extraction window by means of vapor deposition, printing, or the like, and the dielectric-coated inner electrode is attached thereto. It is efficient to attach.

In the method in which the outer electrode is separate from the excimer light extraction window, if the distance between the end surface of the outer electrode and the excimer light extraction window is made larger than the discharge space distance between the dielectric of the inner electrode and the outer electrode, the rare gas The emission of the resonance line is absorbed, and only the respective rare gas excimer light can be effectively extracted.

In order to arrange a plurality of electrode pair unit assemblies in the excimer light generating gas filling chamber, it is desirable to arrange the outer electrodes of each electrode pair unit in contact with each other in terms of connection with a power supply circuit.

In the above arrangement, when the electrode pair unit assembly is arranged in a honeycomb shape, the light opening rate, which will be described later, is increased and the space is saved.

[0010]

1 and 2 show an example of an excimer light irradiation apparatus according to the present invention. In these drawings, the electrode pair unit 10 includes an inner electrode 1, a dielectric 3 provided on a peripheral side of the inner electrode 1, and an outer electrode 5 provided from the dielectric 3 via a certain discharge space. , Rare gas container 5
The outer electrodes 2 are arranged so as to be in contact with each other. Each inner electrode 1 is connected via a connection line 1a. The outer electrodes 2 that are in contact with each other are connected to the outer electrode 2 of one electrode pair unit 10 as terminals, and
It is connected to the. 9 is a power supply.

Referring to FIG. 3, the electrode pair unit 10 will be described in detail. The inner electrode 1 and the outer electrode 2 are arranged concentrically. Aluminum, copper, brass, nickel, stainless steel or the like is suitably used for these electrodes 1 and 2. A dielectric 3 is arranged on the outer peripheral side of the inner electrode 1. Quartz, glass, ceramic, or the like is used for the dielectric 3. The discharge occurs in a discharge space 4 formed between the dielectric 3 and the outer electrode 3. 1a is a part of the connection line of the inner electrode 1.

In this case, it is not physically impossible to provide the dielectric 3 on the inner peripheral side of the outer electrode 2, but in practice, an effective discharge space 4 is secured between the dielectric 3 and the inner electrode 1. Is difficult. Further, the ratio (opening ratio) of the end surface area of the discharge space to the area of the excimer light extraction window of the excimer light generating rare gas-filled container described later becomes small, and cannot be put to practical use. In the present invention, by providing the dielectric 3 on the outer peripheral side of the inner electrode 1,
The aperture ratio approaches the ideal value of 1. Electrode pair unit 1
The size of 0 can be appropriately selected according to the application, but the diameter of the inner electrode 1 is 0.1 to 1 mm, and the length of the outer electrode cylinder is 5 m.
m or less, the discharge distance is usually several mm to several tens mm, particularly 1 to 5
mm is practical. In the present invention, since the discharge volume of the one electrode pair unit 10 can be reduced, even if a large number of these are used, the power consumption can be reduced as compared with a type having a large discharge distance using a large rod-shaped electrode pair.

In the present invention, the electrode pair unit 10 used
The number is not limited to one or more, and may be selected according to a desired irradiation area. However, it is preferable to use a large number of electrode pair unit assemblies. One electrode pair unit 10 includes:
Since it is composed of a small cylinder having a diameter of about 1 to 10 mm and a length of about 5 mm or less, it can be arranged in any shape as an electrode pair unit assembly, and a desired irradiation surface shape can be easily obtained.
If they are arranged in close contact, the aperture ratio is high and there are almost no irradiation spots.

The rare gas-filled container 5 is hermetically formed of a corrosion-resistant material such as stainless steel, and is filled with a rare gas 6 that generates excimer light by barrier discharge, discharged, or refluxed. Argon (126 nm) as a rare gas,
Xenon (146 nm), krypton (172 nm) alone, or a combination thereof, such as argon-krypton mixture (126-146 nm), krypton-xenon mixture (146-172 nm), etc. Can be used. An excimer light extraction window 7 is fixed or detachably provided on the excimer light irradiation side of the container 5. Quartz,
An excimer light transmitting member made of magnesium fluoride, lithium fluoride, calcium fluoride, barium fluoride, sapphire, or the like is used. Incidentally, quartz transmits only excimer light generated from rare gas xenon. Similarly, each window member has a shortest wavelength that can be transmitted, and may be appropriately selected in relation to the rare gas used.

As shown in FIG. 2, preferably the outer electrode 2
When the distance L1 between the end surface of the excimer light irradiation side and the excimer light extraction window 8 is larger than the distance L2 (discharge space radius) between the inner peripheral surface of the outer electrode 2 and the outer peripheral surface of the dielectric 3, the rare gas resonance line Is absorbed, and only the respective rare gas excimer light can be effectively extracted. For example, when argon is used as the rare gas 9 in the rare gas filled container 5, a rare gas resonance line such as argon 104 nm and argon 106 nm is generated in addition to the argon excimer light 126 nm.
nm is absorbed, and only the argon 126 can be extracted from the extraction window 8.

FIG. 4 shows an example in which the electrode pair unit assemblies are arranged in a staggered manner, and FIG. 5 shows an example in which the electrode pair unit assemblies are arranged in a honeycomb shape. In any case, the aperture ratio is closer to the ideal value 1 than in the simple parallel arrangement shown in FIG. In particular, FIG.
There is no dead space on the honeycomb, which is desirable in terms of space saving.

In manufacturing the excimer light irradiation apparatus of the present invention, individual electrode pair units 10 can be manufactured in advance and incorporated in a rare gas filled container. An assembly of such electrode pair units 10 can be made and incorporated in a rare gas filled container. Also, when the excimer light irradiation device is manufactured, a large number of electrode pair units 10 can be manufactured directly together with the rare gas filled container. In this case, for example, it is efficient to form a large number of outer electrodes 2 directly on the excimer light extraction window 8 by means such as vapor deposition or printing, and attach a dielectric-coated inner electrode to the outer electrodes 2.

The excimer light irradiation apparatus of the present invention is excellent particularly for irradiation of a large area or for irradiation of a special shape.
The present invention can be applied more widely than before to various cleaning apparatuses, sterilizing apparatuses, coating apparatuses, resin curing apparatuses, and the like, including application to removal of an oxide film on a wafer.

[0019]

The excimer light irradiation device of the present invention has the following advantages. (1) Since the electrode pair unit of the present invention is constituted by a small cylindrical body unlike the conventional rod-shaped electrode pair, an arbitrary number of electrode pair units may be used according to a desired irradiation area. There is virtually no limit on the size of the area. (2) Unlike the conventional rod-shaped electrode pair, the electrode pair unit of the present invention can be arranged according to a desired irradiation surface such as a square, a circle, a polygon, etc. It is. (3) In the electrode pair unit of the present invention, the inner side
A dielectric is provided, and it is horizontal to the excimer light extraction window.
And the outer electrodes are in contact with each other.
As described above, for example, by densely disposing them in a honeycomb shape, a high aperture ratio is obtained and irradiation spots are reduced. (4) Since the discharge space is small in the electrode pair unit of the present invention, the power consumption as a whole can be reduced even if many units are used.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a plan view schematically showing one example of an excimer light irradiation device of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a side view showing an AA cross section of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is an enlarged side sectional view schematically showing an electrode pair unit of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a perspective view showing an example of a staggered arrangement of an electrode pair unit assembly.

FIG. 5 is a perspective view showing an example of a honeycomb arrangement of an electrode pair unit assembly.

[Explanation of symbols]

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Inner electrode 1a ... Inner electrode connection line 2 ... Outer electrode 3 ... Dielectric 4 ... Discharge space 5 ... Rare gas filled container 6 ... Rare gas 7 ... Excimer light extraction window 8 ... High frequency High voltage power supply circuit 9 Power supply 10 Electrode pair unit L1 Distance between outer electrode irradiation side end face and extraction window L2 Distance between outer electrode and dielectric inner peripheral surface (discharge space radius)

──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continuing from the front page (73) Patent holder 598075217 Hinode Oki Co., Ltd. 86-1, Sakurazonocho, Nobeoka-shi, Miyazaki Prefecture (73) Patentee 598049746 Miyazaki Daishin Cannon Co., Ltd. 4308-1 Ogi Takagi, Kishiro-cho, Koyu-gun, Miyazaki Prefecture (73) Patent holder 000239666 Fukuho Teikoku Co., Ltd. 1591 Tateiwa, Oizuka, Iizuka-shi, Fukuoka (73) Patent holder 000000295 Oki Electric Industry Co., Ltd. 1-7-12 Toranomon, Minato-ku, Tokyo (72) Inventor Shoichi Kubodera 6-9 (72) Inventor Hidenori Yamada, Iizuka City, Fukuoka Prefecture Fukuho Teikoku Co., Ltd. (56) References JP-A-8-236084 (JP, A) JP-A-9-330684 (JP, A) (58) Fields investigated (Int. Cl. ⁷ , DB name) H01J 65/00

Claims (3)

(57) [Claims] An electrode pair unit comprising an inner electrode, a dielectric provided on the peripheral side of the inner electrode, and a cylindrical outer electrode provided from the dielectric via a certain discharge space is provided with an excimer light. In the generated gas charging chamber, one stage in the vertical direction with respect to the excimer light extraction window and multiple
The plurality of electrode pair units have outer electrodes in contact with each other.
An excimer light irradiation device, which is densely arranged so as to perform 2. The excimer light irradiation device according to claim 1, wherein the outer electrode is directly fixed to the inner surface of the excimer light extraction window. 3. The arrangement of the electrode pair unit assembly is a honeycomb.
2. The excimer light irradiation device according to claim 1, wherein the irradiation device is in a shape .