JPH0230444Y2 - - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Industrial Application Field] The present invention relates to a roll coater type sputtering device using one coating roll, and more specifically, to a method for continuously sputtering a film-like material wound on a roll. The present invention relates to an apparatus for forming a uniform, stable, and excellent thin film of a metal or metal compound on a film by improving an apparatus for forming a thin film of a metal or metal compound on a film.

[Prior Art] A conventional two-chamber roll coater sputtering device was designed to sputter a well-wound film such as a polyester film. For this purpose, the sputtering device was a two-chamber type sputtering device consisting of a chamber for a roll unwinding device section and a roll winding device section, and a sputtering chamber.

However, with advances in fields such as electronics and optoelectronics, metals or metal compounds are sputtered onto various polymer films to form thin films, used as conductive or insulating materials, and processed into circuit boards. Demands have been made. The performance of these polymer films as final products is important, and not only do they have excellent thin film formation properties when sputtered, but they also emit gaseous volatile components from the film surface during sputtering. However, it has been difficult to form a uniform, stable and excellent metal or metal compound coating on these films.

Also, if the film cannot be wound tightly due to its strength, the thickness accuracy is insufficient, or if one or both sides are uneven for some reason, a large amount of air will be drawn into the film gap when it is wound up into a roll. Therefore, if sputtering is attempted in this state, the degree of vacuum in the sputtering chamber will fluctuate due to the influence of these air, making it difficult to form a uniform and excellent thin film of metal or metal compound on the film. was extremely difficult.

Furthermore, in order to deal with these problems, when the film is wound into a roll and then rewound in a vacuum, it is inevitably exposed to air at normal pressure when it is set in a sputtering device. The problem of involving the government again could not be resolved.

In order to eliminate the effects of air trapped between these films, we attempted to solve the problem by isolating the film unwinding section and creating a separate room with a separate vacuum exhaust system, but the film itself contained some volatile components. In such cases, even a device with a separate unwinding section is insufficient, and in order to form a thin film of metal or metal compound on such a film by sputtering, a separate heating device is required. It was necessary to perform degassing while rewinding the film, resulting in poor productivity and increased costs.

In addition, degassing was also achieved by leaving the film unwinding and winding chamber of conventional sputtering equipment for a long period of time while being evacuated. Furthermore, the sputtering equipment has the disadvantage that the operating time becomes longer.

As shown in FIG. 2, some conventional sputtering apparatuses heat the film to degas it after unwinding the film. Degassing from the film is a function of temperature and time because it is carried out by the diffusion of gas within the film, and in conventional apparatuses, the time required to heat the film is short and sufficient degassing cannot be achieved.

[Problems to be solved by the invention] The invention provides a roll coater type sputtering device that can form a highly productive, uniform, and stable thin film of an excellent metal or metal compound on a polymer film containing volatile components. There is something to do.

[Means for Solving the Problems] The present invention provides a roll coater type sputtering device using one coating roll 10.
The sputtering chamber 8 is separated from the winding chamber 3 by a partition 11 having film running slits 12, 12', and the unwinding chamber 5 is separated from the winding chamber 3 by a partition 4 having film feeding slits 7. A film heating heater 2 is provided in the unwinding chamber 5 along the surface of the unwinding roll, and the unwinding chamber 5, the winding chamber 3 and the sputtering chamber are separated from each other. This is a roll coater type sputtering apparatus characterized in that 8 is provided with independent vacuum exhaust ports 6, 6', and 6'', respectively.

[Operation] The present invention will be explained in detail with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a schematic cross-sectional view showing the structure of the roll coater type sputtering apparatus of the present invention.

The unwinding chamber 5 is provided with a film unwinding roll 1 and is equipped with a film heater 2 along the surface of the unwinding roll, and is separated by a partition wall 4 provided with a film unwinding slit 7 to form a separate chamber. Furthermore, it has a vacuum exhaust port 6 that is evacuated by an independent vacuum exhaust device (not shown). The film 9 is fed out from the film unwinding section 1 through the film unwinding slit 7 into the winding chamber 3, and is then fed into the coating roll 10.
The sputtering chamber 8 passes through the film running slit 12 formed between the partition wall 11 and the sputtering chamber 8.
The metal or metal compound is introduced into the film 9
A thin film is formed by sputtering on top. After being further sputtered, the film 9 passes through a film running slit 12' and then enters the winding chamber 3.
The sputtering process is completed by returning to the inside and being wound up on the winding roll 13.

In this device, a film containing volatile components such as air is heated by a heating heater 2,
Furthermore, an unwinding chamber 5 and a winding chamber 3
Then, sputtering gas is introduced from the sputtering gas supply port 15 while the sputtering chamber 8 is being evacuated, and power is applied to the target 14 while maintaining the pressure in the sputtering chamber 8 in the glow discharge region. Apply the voltage to perform sputtering.

The heating heater is equipped with an adjustment mechanism that can adjust the temperature according to the thickness of the film, and a single heater may be used, or a plurality of heating heaters may be used in combination. Further, the heating method may be an infrared heating method, a dielectric heating method, or a heating method using glow discharge, and is not particularly limited.

In this device, the unwinding chamber 5 is isolated from the winding chamber 3, and the film is heated by a heating heater 2 and evacuated by a separate vacuum exhaust system.
is isolated from the sputtering chamber 8, so that vacuum pressure fluctuations caused by air from between the films that occur during film unwinding have almost no effect on the vacuum pressure in the sputtering chamber 8, and are uniformly distributed. Stable and excellent continuous sputtering is possible.

That is, the volatile components in the rolled film containing a large amount of air are first heated by the heating heater 2 and then exhausted from the vacuum exhaust port 6 by an independent vacuum exhaust device in the unwinding chamber 5. . Then, while the film 9 is running inside the winding chamber 3, volatile components are evacuated by another vacuum evacuation device and then through the vacuum exhaust port 6', and passed through the film running slit 12 into the sputtering chamber 8. Film 9 was sent to me. The inside of the sputtering chamber 8 is further evacuated from the vacuum exhaust port 6'' by another vacuum evacuation device, and the vacuum pressure inside the sputtering chamber is constant, so that sputtering is uniform on the film 9. The sputtered film 9 is then passed through the film running slit 12'.
The sputtering process is completed by returning to the take-up chamber 3 and being wound onto the take-up roll 13.

The device according to the present invention has a structure in which a heating heater is arranged along the surface of the unwinding roll, so that not only the film on the surface of the roll but also the film wound around the roll is heated, thereby degassing the film. It is done for a long time, and the effect is very large.

A thin film is continuously formed on the film in a sputtering chamber while heating the film and degassing it. If the heating temperature of the film is lower than the amount of heat generated during sputtering, voids will occur under the thin film layer, making it impossible to obtain a uniform, stable, and excellent thin film. .

[Example] Using the apparatus shown in Figure 1,
Indium-tin alloy was sputtered using a reactive sputtering method using a roll of 100 μm polyether sulfone film.

The film surface was heated to 180°C using an infrared heater as a heating heater, and sputtering was performed while vacuum evacuation was performed. Note that sputtering was started 30 minutes after heating and evacuation were started, the sputtering speed was 1 m/min, and a thin film of indium tin oxide was formed to a thickness of 300 Å. The sheet resistance of the obtained film was 200Ω/□,
A good light transmittance of 84% at 600 nm was obtained.

For comparison, the same polyether sulfone film as above was coated with the conventional two-chamber roll coater sputtering device shown in Figure 2.
An indium tin oxide thin film was formed to a thickness of 300 Å. The sheet resistance of the obtained film is 100
~4000Ω/□, light transmittance at 600nm is 70~
The film obtained was only 83%, which varied greatly, and furthermore, the thin film of indium tin oxide was peeled off from the film surface and was in a swollen state, making it unsuitable for practical use.

[Effects of the invention] The present invention can continuously form a uniform, stable, and excellent thin film of metal or metal compound even on a roll-shaped polymer film containing a large amount of volatile components such as air. It is suitable as a roll coater type sputtering device.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic cross-sectional view showing the structure of the roll coater type sputtering apparatus of the present invention. FIG. 2 is a schematic sectional view showing the structure of a conventional roll coater type sputtering device equipped with a heating device. 1... Unwinding roll, 2... Heating heater, 3
... Winding chamber, 4 ... Partition wall, 5 ... Unwinding chamber, 6 ... Vacuum exhaust port, 7 ... Film feeding slit, 8 ... Sputtering chamber, 9 ... Film, 10 ... Coating Roll, 11... Partition wall, 12... Film running slit, 13... Winding roll, 14... Target, 15... Sputtering gas supply port.

Claims (1)

[Scope of utility model registration request] In a roll coater type sputtering device using one coating roll, the sputtering chamber is separated by a take-up chamber and a partition wall having a film running slit, and the unwinding chamber is separated by a partition wall having a take-up chamber and a film feed slit. A film heating heater is provided in the unwinding chamber along the surface of the unwinding roll, and an independent film heater is provided in the unwinding chamber, the winding chamber, and the sputtering chamber. A roll coater type sputtering device characterized in that each vacuum exhaust port is provided with a vacuum exhaust port.