JPH0222461A - Film forming device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To stably form the coating film of a metal oxide for a long time by providing a metallic sheet electrically connected to a chamber on the inner wall surface opposed to a cathode in the chamber, and continuously traveling the metallic sheet. CONSTITUTION:A Zr vapor-deposition device 10 is fixed on the arc vapor- deposition cathode 6, and a glass substrate 20 is placed on a conveyor belt 17 and set in a cell 2. The cells 2, 3, and 4 of a grounded vacuum vessel 1 are depressurized, gate valves 18 and 19 are opened, and gaseous Ar and gaseous O2 are introduced from a supply pipe 11 to hold the cells at a specified pressure. A current is successively applied to the cathode 6 and a trigger 12 from a power source 7, and an arc discharge is started. The Al sheet 16 electrically connected to the vacuum vessel 1 is simultaneously traveled in direction of the arrow by rolls 14 and 15, and the film of zirconium oxide is formed on the glass substrate 20 sent into the cell 4, and the substrate is discharged from the cell 4. By this method, an arc discharge can be stably kept between the Al sheet 16 and the cathode 6, and a dielectric coating film can be stably formed for a long time.

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Industrial Field of Application] The present invention relates to a film forming apparatus suitable for use in forming a film on a substrate by arc evaporation, for example, in a vacuum chamber. , on an automotive glass substrate,
It is used when forming an oxide film stably over a long period of time.

[Summary of the invention]

In the present invention, a metal sheet such as aluminum is fed on at least one surface of the inner wall of the chamber facing the cathode, thereby making it possible to form a film stably.

[Conventional technology]

Film forming apparatuses and film forming methods using arc evaporation include A,
U.S. Pat. No. 3,62 disclosed by Naper et al.
The techniques described in US Pat. No. 5,848, US Pat. No. 3,783,231, US Pat. In these technologies, a material to be coated is placed in a chamber as a cathode, and a low-voltage arc discharge is generated between the cathode and the chamber or between the cathode and anode to evaporate the cathode material, thereby coating the substrate placed in the chamber. It forms the Usually, the arc current is a large current, for example, 50 A or more, and the principle is used that this arc current concentrates on a spot on the cathode and becomes extremely high temperature, which causes the cathode material to evaporate.

This technique has the advantage that the arc spot moves randomly and uniformly over the surface of the cathode, allowing coatings to be formed on large area substrates at very high speeds.

[Problem to be solved by the invention]

However, the above-mentioned conventional film forming apparatus using arc evaporation has a serious problem in that a dielectric film cannot be stably formed over a long period of time. That is, when forming a dielectric film using a film forming apparatus using conventional arc evaporation,
As film formation continues, a dielectric film is also formed on the inner wall of the chamber, which gradually increases the resistance, eventually making it difficult to stably conduct an arc current of 50 A or more. As a result, the discharge became extremely unstable, causing serious problems such as abnormal discharge caused by the charge accumulated on the inner wall of the chamber, and damage to the equipment due to the occurrence of an anode spot where the current was concentrated in a part of the chamber. .

[Means to solve the problem]

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems of the conventional art, the present invention provides a method for discharging the I.I.
A film forming apparatus for forming ll, which is provided with a mechanism for continuously feeding a metal sheet electrically connected to the chamber on at least one surface of the inner wall of the chamber facing the cathode. It is.

Materials for the metal sheet that can be used in the present invention include aluminum, copper, stainless steel, and the like.

[Effect]

Since a metal sheet electrically connected to the chamber is continuously fed onto at least one surface of the inner wall of the chamber where the film is formed, facing the cathode, a large area of a highly conductive surface is constantly obtained. 10 to 100 to maintain arc discharge between the metal sheet and the cathode.
The effect of securing an area for stably passing the current A is exerted, and it becomes possible to form a dielectric film stably for a long period of time.

〔Example〕

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

The drawings show an embodiment of a vacuum arc deposition film forming apparatus according to the present invention. In the figure, this device has first to third chambers 2.
The basic structure is an integral grounded vacuum device 1 consisting of 3.4. At the bottom of the second chamber 3 of this vacuum chamber 1,
An arc discharge cathode 6 is installed via an electrical insulator 5, and this cathode 6 is connected to a DC power source 7 via a switch 8. Further, a gas supply pipe 11 provided with pulp 9 is installed passing through the bottom portion. Further, a trigger 12 for causing arc discharge is connected to the DC power source 7 via a switch 13.

Further, according to the present invention, in the upper part of the second chamber 3 of the vacuum chamber l,
A pair of rotatable rollers 14.15 is provided. An aluminum sheet 16 is wound between these rollers 14,15. A motor (not shown) is attached to the rollers 14, 15 to feed the sheet 16 in the direction of the arrow. The rotational speed of this motor is set so that the sheet 16 is fed at a speed of 0.1 m/min. The aluminum sheet 16 is electrically connected to the vacuum chamber l via suitable means,
It is wound around a roller 14 with a length of about 12 m, and one end is connected to a roller 15 so that it is gradually wound up and finally completely wound up on the roller 15. By means of a relay switch (not shown), the rollers 14,15 are rotated to move the sheet 16 only while the discharge is occurring, i.e. only when the switch 8 is in the on state.
It is made so that it can be wound up.

A conveyor belt 17 is installed inside the vacuum chamber 1.
The glass substrate 20 is carried on this conveyor belt to form a cathode.
6, a coating is formed during the passage. The thickness of the coating to be formed is adjusted by adjusting the moving speed of the conveyor heald 17. In order to move the glass substrate 20 between the chambers 2.3.4, a gate valve 18.
A mechanism is provided that enables the above movement by opening and closing 19.

A method for forming a dielectric film using the film forming apparatus configured as described above will be described below, taking the formation of a zirconium oxide film as an example.

First, Zr is deposited on the top surface of the cathode 6 for arc evaporation using the evaporation device 1.
Install it as 0. In addition, the glass substrate 20 is transferred to the conveyor belt 1.
7 and set it in the first chamber 2.

Next, after reducing the pressure in all chambers 2.3.4 of the vacuum chamber to 10-3 Pa, open the gate valve 18.19. Next, open the valve 9 and add 2.50 argon gas into the vacuum chamber 1.
Introduce SCCM and 503 CCM of oxygen gas. At this time, the pressure inside the vacuum chamber 1 was adjusted to 10-'Pa. Then, the switch 8 was turned on, and then the switch 13 of the trigger 12 was turned on, and a current of 10 OA was passed through the cathode 6 to start arc discharge. At this time, the discharge voltage was 21V.

Thereafter, the conveyor belt 17 is run at a speed of 100 mm/min to convey the glass substrate 20 in the direction of the second chamber 3 of the vacuum chamber 1, and after passing over the cathode 6, the glass substrate 20 is transferred to the third chamber 4.
reached. Then, the valve 9 of the gas supply pipe was closed, the switch 8 of the cathode 6 was turned off to stop the discharge, and then the gate valves 18 and 19 were closed. The glass substrate 2o on which the zirconium oxide film was formed in this way,
After returning the third chamber 4 of the vacuum chamber 1 to atmospheric pressure, the door was opened and the chamber was taken out.

The above procedure was repeated five times to continuously obtain five glass substrates 2o on which zirconium oxide films were formed.

In the fifth film forming operation, the discharge voltage was about 22V,
The discharge voltage was almost the same as the discharge voltage of about 21 V during the first film formation, and no abnormal discharge occurred which was substantially higher than that, and it was possible to stably obtain a zirconium oxide film. The zirconium oxide coating thus obtained was almost completely transparent, and the film thickness as measured by a surface roughness meter was in the range of approximately 1900 to 2200 mm. When the door of the second chamber 3 of the vacuum chamber 1 was opened and the state of the sheet 16 was examined, it was found that about 1/3
sheets were being sent from roller 14 to roller 15.

The drawing is a cross-sectional side view of a film forming apparatus using vacuum arc evaporation according to an embodiment of the present invention.

In addition, in the symbols used in the drawings, 6-------- Arc discharge cathode 14.
15 ----1111-Roller 16-1----
---1--Aluminum sheet 20--1--------Glass substrate.

Claims (2)

[Claims] (1) In a film forming apparatus that forms a film on a base material located at a position facing the cathode by causing an electric discharge between the cathode on which a film material is set and the chamber, A film forming apparatus characterized in that means is provided for continuously feeding a metal sheet electrically connected to the chamber on at least one surface of the inner wall of the chamber facing the cathode. (2) The film forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the metal sheet is aluminum, copper, or stainless steel.