JP5231917B2 - Deposition equipment - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to an organic EL device manufacturing apparatus, a film forming apparatus, and an in-vacuum wiring / piping mechanism, and more particularly to an organic EL device manufacturing apparatus, a film forming apparatus, an in-vacuum wiring, It relates to a piping mechanism.

There exists a vacuum evaporation method as an influential method of manufacturing an organic EL device. In a mechanism using vacuum, such as a vacuum deposition process, it is necessary to have a mechanism that repeatedly moves into the vacuum chamber, and to provide wiring and piping to the moving body. In that case, exposure to the vacuum using a general dynamic tying tool (ex. Cableveyor (registered trademark) ) used in the atmosphere will cause (1) outgas from the coating material of the wiring. problems and, (2), such as fear of fluid leakage resulting damage due to pipeline fatigue, the reasons are usually difficult. In particular, the organic EL device manufacturing apparatus is sensitive to water leakage, and it takes time to obtain a predetermined degree of vacuum again. Conventional techniques for this problem include the following.

Patent Document 1 discloses that a moving device is driven from the atmosphere side by magnetism so that lead wires, signal wires and the like of a motor are not routed into a vacuum chamber.
Patent Document 2 discloses that wiring and piping are covered with highly flexible resinous piping, and the inside of the coated piping is evacuated.

JP 2001-297967 A JP 2004-274889 A

  However, the method disclosed in Patent Document 1 cannot be applied to fluid piping. The invention disclosed in Patent Document 2 has the following problems. First of all, since the resin is used for the coated piping, the problem of outgassing cannot be completely eliminated. Secondly, since resin is used for the wiring, it is necessary to evacuate the inside of the coated piping. Third, when applied to a moving body that moves at high speed, the problem of fatigue damage of the coated piping cannot be eliminated.

Accordingly, a first object of the present invention is to provide a highly reliable in-vacuum wiring / piping mechanism that can eliminate the problem of outgassing and fatigue damage of piping.
A second object of the present invention is to provide an in-vacuum wiring / piping mechanism that does not require evacuation.
A third object of the present invention is to provide a highly reliable organic EL device manufacturing apparatus and film forming apparatus by using the in-vacuum wiring / piping mechanism of the present invention.

  In order to achieve the above object, an organic EL device manufacturing apparatus or a film forming apparatus that includes a plurality of vacuum chambers and a moving unit in at least one of the plurality of vacuum chambers, and deposits a deposition material on a substrate. In the apparatus, it is constituted by a hollow link, and at least one of wiring to the moving part or piping for flowing fluid is laid in the hollow link, one end is opened to the atmosphere, and the other end is connected to the moving part The first feature is to have the in-vacuum wiring / piping mechanism.

In order to achieve the above object, in addition to the first feature, a second feature is to vacuum seal the movable portion of the link, the connection portion to the moving body, and the connection portion to the atmosphere.
In order to achieve the above object, in addition to the first feature, the third feature is that the link is made of a metal that hardly rusts and has little outgas.

Furthermore, in order to achieve the above object, in addition to the first feature, the moving body is a moving body that moves an evaporation source for evaporating the vapor deposition material.
In order to achieve the above object, the moving body is a moving body that moves from a position on which the substrate is placed to a deposition position, and the pipe supplies fluid to a cooling unit on the moving body that cools the substrate. 5. The organic EL device manufacturing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the apparatus is a supply / recovery pipe.

  Further, in order to achieve the above object, at least one of wiring or piping for flowing fluid is laid in a hollow link, and at least one end of the movable part of the link and both ends of the link is vacuum-sealed. A sixth feature is an in-vacuum wiring / piping mechanism having a sealing portion.

According to the present invention, it is an object of the present invention to provide a highly reliable in-vacuum drive device that can eliminate the problem of outgas and fatigue damage of piping.
Another object of the present invention is to provide an in-vacuum drive device that does not require evacuation.
Furthermore, according to the present invention, a highly reliable organic EL device manufacturing apparatus or film forming apparatus is provided.

  A first embodiment of the invention will be described with reference to FIGS. Organic EL device manufacturing equipment is not simply a structure in which a light emitting material layer (EL layer) is formed and sandwiched between electrodes, but a hole injection layer or transport layer on the anode, and an electron injection layer or transport layer on the cathode. A multilayer structure in which various materials are formed as a thin film is formed, and a substrate is cleaned. FIG. 1 shows an example of the manufacturing apparatus.

  The organic EL device manufacturing apparatus 100 according to the present embodiment is roughly divided into a load cluster 3 that carries a substrate 6 to be processed, four clusters (A to D) that process the substrate 6, between each cluster 2, or between a cluster and a load cluster. 3 or 6 delivery chambers 4 installed between the next process (sealing process).

  The load cluster 3 receives a substrate 6 (hereinafter simply referred to as a substrate) from the load chamber 31 having the gate valve 10 and the load chamber 31 in order to maintain a vacuum in the front-rear direction, and turns the substrate 6 into the delivery chamber 4a. It consists of a transfer robot 5R. Each load chamber 31 and each delivery chamber 4 have gate valves 10 in the front and rear, and deliver the substrate to the load cluster 3 or the next cluster while controlling the opening and closing of the gate valve 10 and maintaining a vacuum.

  Each cluster (A to D) includes a transfer chamber 2 having a single transfer robot 5 and two processing chambers 1 (first) arranged on the top and bottom of the drawing for receiving a substrate from the transfer robot 5 and performing a predetermined process. 1 subscripts a to d indicate clusters, and second subscripts u and d indicate upper and lower sides). A gate valve 10 is provided between the transfer chamber 2 and the processing chamber 1.

FIG. 2 shows an outline of the configuration of the transfer chamber 2 and the processing chamber 1. Although the configuration of the processing chamber 1 varies depending on the content of processing, a vacuum deposition chamber 1bu that deposits a luminescent material in vacuum to form an EL layer will be described as an example. FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram and an operation explanatory diagram of the configuration of the transfer chamber 2b and the vacuum deposition chamber 1bu at that time. The transfer robot 5 in FIG. 2 has a three-link structure arm 57 that can move up and down as a whole (see arrow 59 in FIG. 3) and can turn left and right. Two hands 58 are provided in two upper and lower stages. In the case of a single hand, a rotation operation for transferring the substrate to the next process, a rotation operation for receiving the substrate from the previous process, and an accompanying gate valve opening / closing operation are necessary during the loading / unloading process. By making the upper and lower two stages, the substrate to be carried into one hand is held, the substrate is carried out from the vacuum deposition chamber with the other hand not holding the substrate, and then the carrying-in operation is continuously performed. be able to.
Whether to use two hands or one hand depends on the required production capacity. In the following description, a single hand is used for the sake of simplicity.

  On the other hand, the vacuum deposition chamber 1bu is broadly divided into a deposition unit 7 for evaporating a luminescent material and depositing it on the substrate 6, an alignment unit 8 for depositing on a necessary part of the substrate 6, and a transfer robot 5 and the substrate delivery. The process delivery part 9 which moves the board | substrate 6 to the vapor deposition part 7 consists of. The alignment unit 8 and the processing delivery unit 9 are provided in two systems, a right R line and a left L line.

  The processing delivery unit 9 is provided with a comb-like hand 91 that can deliver the substrate 6 without interfering with the comb-like hand 58 of the transport robot 5, and the substrate 6 that is on the comb-like hand 91 and is fixedly mounted. And a substrate turning means 93 for moving the substrate 6 upright and moving it to the alignment unit 8. As the means for fixing, means such as electrostatic attraction and mechanical clamping are used in consideration of being in a vacuum.

  FIG. 4 shows the substrate turning means 93 in detail, and is a view showing a first embodiment in which the in-vacuum wiring / piping mechanism of the present invention is applied to the substrate turning means 93. The substrate turning means 93 rotates the substrate 6, the mounting table 93 </ b> D, and the cooling jacket 93 </ b> J together with the mounting table 93 </ b> D for mounting the substrate 6, the cooling jacket 93 </ b> J for cooling the substrate 6 during vapor deposition, and the alignment unit 8. It is composed of a substrate turning drive unit 93B that can come into contact with the shadow mask 81. Cooling water pipes 43 and 44 are laid on the cooling jacket 93J. Further, the substrate turning drive unit 93B includes a turning motor 93M provided on the atmosphere side, a hollow first link 41 that turns in the direction of arrow A through the gears 93H1 and 93H2 by the turning motor 93M, and the first The link 41 is fixed so as to have a hollow portion continuous with the hollow portion of the first link, and has a second link 42 provided along the side surface portion of the cooling jacket 93J. The first link is rotatably supported by a vacuum seal portion 93S provided on the side wall of the vacuum deposition chamber 1bu. The turning motor 93J is controlled by a control device 60 provided on the atmosphere side.

  The in-vacuum wiring / piping mechanism 40 in the present embodiment is composed of the first link 41 and the second link 42, and the hollow portion has a supply 43 and a recovery for flowing cooling water through the cooling jacket 93J. 44 cooling water pipes are provided. Each link is made of a metal that is strong against rust and has sufficient strength, such as stainless steel and aluminum, and the pre-drive motor 93M side of the hollow portion of the first link 41 is open to the atmosphere. The two cooling water pipes are made of a material having flexibility that is generally used in the atmosphere or made of metal, and the first link 41 has no flexible part in the link. And it pipes in the L shape which is the shape formed with the 2nd link 42, and a flexible part is provided in the atmosphere side. If the latter is used, piping with less fatigue damage can be constructed. In addition, the connection part at the side wall of the vacuum deposition chamber 1bu is made lower than the connection part at the cooling jacket 93J so that even if the cooling water leaks from the cooling water pipes 43 and 44, it is drained to the atmosphere side.

  According to the embodiment of the in-vacuum wiring / piping mechanism 40 of the present embodiment, a pipe is provided in the hollow portion of the link mechanism having one end opened to the atmosphere and the other end connected to the moving portion, and the rotating portion of the link mechanism is a vacuum Since it is sealed and completely shut off from the vacuum side, even if water leaks from the cooling water pipe, it does not leak to the vacuum side, and the hollow part of the link mechanism does not need to be evacuated. Further, since the link mechanism is made of stainless steel or aluminum, no outgas is generated. In addition, since the in-vacuum wiring / piping mechanism constitutes a part of the substrate turning drive unit, the overall structure can be simplified.

  The alignment unit 8 includes a shadow mask 81 composed of a mask 81M and a frame 81F shown in FIG. 5, and an alignment driving unit 83 for aligning the substrate 6 and the shadow mask 81 with an alignment mark 84 on the substrate.

  FIG. 6 shows the configuration of the vapor deposition section 7 and is a diagram showing a second embodiment of the in-vacuum wiring / piping mechanism. FIG. 6 (b) is a view seen from the direction of arrow B in FIG. 6 (a). The vapor deposition unit 7 includes a vertical drive unit 72 that moves the evaporation unit 71 in the vertical direction along the rail 76, and a left and right drive base 74 that moves the evaporation unit 71 along the rail 75 between the left and right alignment units (see FIG. 3). ) And an in-vacuum wiring / piping mechanism 50.

  The vertical drive means 72 is driven to rotate by a drive motor 72M provided on the atmosphere side, and the motor 72M, and is fixed to the rotary portion 72C and the rotary portion 72C vacuum-sealed to the seal portion 72S, and is synchronized with the rotary portion 72C. A rotating ball screw 72P, a nut 72K fixed to the evaporating unit 71 and moving the evaporating unit 71 up and down by the rotation of the ball screw 72P, and a guide guide 72G for guiding the evaporating unit 71 on the rail 76 when moving up and down.

  The evaporation unit 71 is in a vacuum atmosphere, and has a plurality of evaporation sources 71a to 71e (the number is determined if necessary). Each evaporation source 71a to 71e evaporates a vapor deposition material 71Z that is a light emitting material and heats the vapor deposition material. The control device 50 described above controls the heater 71H so as to obtain a stable evaporation rate by looking at the output of the temperature sensor 71S. As shown in the drawing of FIG. 3, the evaporation part 71 has a plurality of evaporation sources 71a to 73e arranged in a line, and the vapor deposition material 71Z evaporates from the holes. If necessary, in order to improve the properties of the deposited film, the additive is also heated and deposited at the same time. In this case, the evaporation source and the pair or a plurality of evaporation sources are deposited in parallel vertically.

  The in-vacuum wiring / piping mechanism 50 has a hollow first link 51 fixed at one end to the wall of the vacuum vapor deposition chamber 1bu and open to the atmosphere, and one end is the other end of the first link 51. The link structure is composed of a hollow second link 52 that is rotatably connected to the vapor deposition section 71 and is rotatably fixed to the vapor deposition section 71. Each rotating part is vacuum-sealed by a mechanism as shown in FIG. Each link is made of a metal that is strong against rust and has sufficient strength, for example, stainless steel. In the hollow link, the above-described wiring 54 such as the voltage line to the heater 71H and the signal line of the temperature sensor 71S is laid. ing. A feedthrough 55 that relays the wiring 54 is provided at a connection portion between the vapor deposition source 71 and the second link. The in-vacuum wiring / piping mechanism 50 can maintain the state in which the connection portions 53 of both links are moved up and down in the evaporation portion 71 and the wiring of the signal line and the voltage line is stably connected to the target position. Is possible.

  FIG. 7 shows an example of the vacuum seal, and is a diagram showing the configuration of the vacuum seal of the connection portion 53 between the link 51 and the link 52. The connecting portion 53 has a hollow rotating portion 53K in which the link 51 is rotated by a cross roller bearing 53P with respect to the link 52 and vacuum-sealed by a packing (O-ring) 53P and a gasket (O-ring) 53G. By this mechanism, it is completely cut off from the vacuum side, and the wiring 54 can be passed through the hollow portion.

  According to the in-vacuum wiring / piping mechanism 50 of this embodiment, even if the connecting portion moves, the movement is absorbed by the link mechanism, and the rotating portion is completely shielded from the vacuum region by the sealed stainless steel link. Therefore, even if outgas is generated from the wiring, the outgas does not leak to the vacuum side, and the link mechanism does not need to be evacuated. Further, since the link mechanism is made of stainless steel or stainless steel, no outgas is generated.

  FIG. 8 is a diagram showing a processing flow of the processing chamber 1 with such a configuration. The basic concept of processing in the present embodiment is that the substrate is transported with the deposition surface on the top surface, the substrate 6 transported on the top surface is vertically set, transported to the alignment unit 8 and deposited. If the lower surface of the substrate 6 is a vapor deposition surface at the time of conveyance, it is necessary to invert it.

  In addition, the time required for the vapor deposition process and the other processes such as the substrate carrying-in / out process for the processing chamber 1 are substantially the same, and in this embodiment each is approximately 1 minute. Therefore, another basic idea of the processing in this embodiment is to perform deposition on one line, carry in and out the substrate on the other line, align, and complete preparation for deposition. . By alternately performing this process, the time during which the material in the evaporation source is evaporated wastefully can be reduced.

  The processing flow will be described in detail with reference to FIG. In FIG. 3, the place where the substrate 6 exists is indicated by a solid line.

  First, in the R line, the substrate 6R is carried in, the substrate 6R is vertically set up and moved to the alignment unit 8R, and the substrate 6 and the shadow mask 81 are aligned (Step R1 to Step R3). At this time, the substrate 6 is transported with the vapor deposition surface facing upward in order to perform vertical alignment immediately. For the alignment, as shown in the drawing of FIG. 3, the shadow mask 81R is placed in such a manner that the image is taken by the CCD camera 86 and the alignment mark 84 provided on the substrate 6 is at the center of the window 85 provided with the mask 81M. This is performed by being controlled by the alignment driving unit 83. If the main vapor deposition is a material that emits red (R), as shown in FIG. 4, there is a window in a portion corresponding to R of the mask 81M, and this portion is vapor deposited. The size of the window varies depending on the color, but on average is about 50 μm in width and about 150 μm in height. The thickness of the mask 81M is 40 μm and tends to become thinner in the future.

  When the alignment is completed, the evaporation unit 71 is moved to the R line side (Step R4), and then the line-shaped evaporation unit 71 is moved up or down to perform deposition (Step R5). During the R line deposition, the processing from StepL1 to StepL3 is performed in the L line as in the R line. That is, another substrate 6L is carried in, the substrate 6L is set up vertically, moved to the alignment unit 8L, and aligned with the shadow mask 81L. When the deposition of the substrate 6R on the R line is completed, the evaporation unit 71 moves to the L line (Step L4), and deposits the substrate 6L on the L line (Step L5). At this time, if the substrate 6R moves away from the alignment unit 8R before the evaporation unit 71 completely exits the deposition area of the R line, there is a possibility of unnecessary deposition. The carrying-out operation from the chamber 1 is started, and then preparation for a new substrate 6R is started. In order to avoid the unnecessary deposition, a partition plate 11 is provided between the lines. FIG. 3 shows the states of StepR4 and StepL1. That is, vapor deposition is started on the R line, and the substrate is loaded into the vacuum vapor deposition chamber 1bu on the L line.

Thereafter, by continuously performing the above flow, according to the present embodiment, it is possible to perform vapor deposition without wasteful use of the vapor deposition material except for the moving time of the evaporation unit 7. As described above, the necessary vapor deposition time and other processing time are about 1 minute. If the moving time of the evaporation unit 71 is 5 seconds, the wasteful vapor deposition time of 1 minute is shortened to 5 seconds in the present embodiment. it can.
Further, according to the present embodiment, as shown in FIG. 5, the processing cycle of one processing substrate in the vacuum deposition chamber 1bu is substantially the deposition time + the moving time of the evaporation unit 71, thereby improving productivity. it can. If the processing time is evaluated under the above-mentioned conditions, it will be 1 minute 5 seconds in the present invention compared to the conventional 2 minutes, and the productivity per chamber can be improved about twice.

  In the above embodiment, two processing lines including the alignment unit 8L and the processing delivery unit 9 are provided for one vapor deposition unit 7 in one processing apparatus. For example, if the deposition time is 30 seconds and the other processing time is 1 minute, the same effect can be obtained even if three processing lines are provided for one deposition unit 7 in one processing apparatus. .

  According to the embodiment described above, a highly reliable organic EL device manufacturing apparatus can be provided by using the in-vacuum wiring / piping mechanism shown in this example.

  In the description of the above embodiment, the in-vacuum wiring / piping mechanism at two locations has been described. There are other places where the present invention can be applied, and the present invention is applicable. For example, in order to move the vapor deposition source to the adjacent alignment unit in FIG. 3, a link mechanism having a similar configuration including a first link and a second link may be provided between the wall and the first link. Alternatively, there is a crystal monitor (not shown) to detect the deposition rate. The crystal monitor needs to move as the evaporation source 71 moves, and needs to be kept at a constant temperature. In that case, a fluid such as water can be supplied and recovered with a similar link configuration.

  In the above-described embodiments, the case where the substrate 6 is transported with the vapor deposition surface facing upward has been described. As other methods for transporting the substrate, there are a method for transporting with the deposition surface facing down, and a method for transporting the substrate in a case or the like.

  However, since the basic concept of the above-described in-vacuum wiring / piping mechanism is not related to the transport method, the present invention can be applied regardless of the transport method.

  In the above description, the organic EL device has been described as an example. However, the present invention can also be applied to a film forming apparatus and a film forming method that perform vapor deposition processing in the same background as the organic EL device.

It is a figure which shows the organic EL device manufacturing apparatus which is embodiment of this invention. It is a figure which shows the outline | summary of a structure of the conveyance chamber 2 and the processing chamber 1 which are embodiment of this invention. It is the schematic diagram and operation | movement explanatory drawing of a structure of the conveyance chamber and processing chamber which are embodiment of this invention. It is a figure which shows the 1st Example of the in-vacuum wiring and piping mechanism of this invention. It is a figure which shows a shadow mask. It is a figure which shows the 2nd Example of the in-vacuum wiring and piping mechanism of this invention. FIG. 5 shows an example of a vacuum seal, and is a view showing a vacuum seal at a connection portion 53. FIG. It is the figure which showed the processing flow of the processing chamber 1 which is embodiment of this invention.

Explanation of symbols

1: Processing chamber 1bu: Vacuum deposition chamber 2: Transfer chamber 3: Load cluster 4: Delivery chamber 5: Transfer robot 6: Substrate 7: Deposition unit 8: Alignment unit 9: Processing transfer unit 10: Gate valve 11: Partition plate 31 : Load chamber 40, 50: In-vacuum wiring / piping mechanism 60: Control device 41, 42, 51, 52: Link 43, 44: Cooling water piping 54: Wiring 71: Evaporation source 100: Organic EL device manufacturing apparatus A to D: Cluster.

Claims (5)

A second moving part for placing and moving a substrate to be deposited in a vacuum chamber;
A substrate turning drive unit that turns the second moving unit upright and directly faces the deposition position, and the substrate turning drive unit includes a first link that is turned by a drive source provided on the atmosphere side; One end of the second link fixed to the first link and the other end fixed to the second moving unit ;
Wherein said first link and the second link is constituted by a second hollow links, passing at least a fluid of the pipe to flow lines or fluid to the second mobile unit to the second hollow link A second in- vacuum wiring / piping mechanism in which piping is laid, the atmosphere side of the first link is opened to the atmosphere, and the other end side of the second link is connected to the second moving part;
And while the movable part of the second hollow link, the connection part to the second moving part and the connection part to the atmosphere are vacuum-sealed, the second hollow link is a metal,
The film forming apparatus , wherein the pipe is a pipe that supplies and recovers a fluid to a cooling unit on the moving body that cools the substrate . A first moving unit for moving an evaporation source for evaporating the deposition material in the vacuum chamber;
Constituted by a first hollow link, flow lines or fluid into the inside hollow link of the first first moving part laying at least one of the pipe, open at one end to the atmosphere, the other end A first in- vacuum wiring / piping mechanism connected to the first moving part,
The movable part of the first hollow link, the connection part to the first moving part and the connection part to the atmosphere are vacuum-sealed, and the first hollow link is made of metal. A film forming apparatus. In the film-forming apparatus of Claim 1 or 2,
The film forming apparatus, wherein the metal is stainless steel or aluminum. In the film-forming apparatus of Claim 2,
Said first moving unit, the film forming apparatus according to claim and Turkey to have a sensor which detects the deposition rate to the substrate.   5. The film forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the film forming apparatus forms an organic EL material.

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