JPH0240740B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a thin film manufacturing apparatus, and a thin film manufacturing apparatus useful for manufacturing thin films of magnetic recording media having a magnetic metal thin film as a recording layer, particularly magnetic recording media such as long magnetic tapes. The purpose of this study is to improve the crystallinity of thin films.

The case of a magnetic metal thin film will be mainly described below. In recent years, with the trend towards higher density recording in magnetic recording devices, metal thin film magnetic recording devices have been changing from the conventionally used coating type recording media in which needle-shaped γ-Fe ₂ O ₃ crystals are adhered to the substrate together with a binder. Research and development is underway. These magnetic recording media are made by forming a thin film of magnetic metal material on a non-magnetic substrate by means such as vacuum evaporation, sputtering, or ion plating, and the recording layer can be made thinner than in coating-type media. This makes it advantageous in terms of high density. Furthermore, for conventional longitudinal recording, it has also been proposed to form a perpendicular magnetization recording layer using vacuum evaporation, sputtering, or other means. Enables high-density recording approximately 10 times higher.

In addition to wet methods such as plating, methods using vacuum techniques such as vacuum evaporation, sputtering, and ion plating methods are used to form these magnetic metal materials; Making a magnetic metal material thinner does not necessarily provide desired characteristics. In particular, magnetic recording materials are required to have high saturation magnetism, high coercive force, etc., and for this purpose, high crystallinity is often required as a magnetic metal film. For example, in a CoCr film for perpendicular magnetization recording, the angular half-width of the film's C-axis orientation (the angular width at which the diffraction It is reported that. (1972 Tohoku Branch Federation Conference of Electrical Related Societies - 1B15 "Crystal Orientation of CoCr Perpendicular Magnetization Film") Therefore, the challenge is how to efficiently form a magnetic metal film with high crystallinity on a substrate. .

FIG. 1 shows a conventional thin film manufacturing apparatus used for forming magnetic recording media and the like. As for the internal structure of the bell gear, a film running system is composed of a supply roll 2 for feeding out the polymer film 1, a cylindrical can 3 for heating or cooling the film 1, and a take-up roll 4 for winding the film 1. . In addition, at a position facing the cylindrical can 3,
An evaporation source 5 of a magnetic metal material was installed, and in this apparatus, a sputtering electrode was installed as a sputtering method. Cylindrical can 3 and sputtering electrode 5
In order to prevent the sputtered magnetic metal material from adhering to unnecessary parts within the bell gear, a deposition prevention plate 6 having an opening corresponding to the sputtering electrode is installed between the bell gear and the bell jar. This anti-adhesion plate 6
If it comes into contact with the film 1 running on the cylindrical can 3, it may cause scratches on the film 1, so the cylindrical can 3 is
They are placed approximately 3 to 6 mm apart. The inside of the bell gear is evacuated to a vacuum of about 1×10 ^-6 torr through the exhaust port 7, and various gases are introduced into the bell gear so that sputtering can be performed at a gas pressure of about 1×10 ^-3 to 1×10 ^-2 torr. A gas inlet 8 is installed. Next, using such an apparatus, a magnetic metal film was formed on the polymer film under the conditions shown below.

Sputtering conditions Sputtering target...Co ₈₀ Cr ₂₀ alloy Sputtering gas...Argon Sputtering pressure...5 x 10 ^-3 torr Can feed speed...0.1m/min Can temperature...80℃ Distance between can and target ...CoCr on the polymer film under conditions of 80 mm or more.
Alloy films were continuously formed to a thickness of 0.5 μm, and the degree of C-axis crystal orientation of these films was evaluated using an X-ray defractometer. FIG. 2 shows the measured data, in which the horizontal axis shows the X-ray reflection angle 2θ, and the vertical axis shows the X-ray reflection intensity. As a result, the degree of C-axis orientation of the CoCr alloy film produced using the conventional production equipment described above is approximately 15° in terms of the half-width of the angular distribution, which is considerably inferior in terms of crystallinity, making it difficult to use as a production equipment for magnetic recording media. I can't say it's enough.

The present invention improves the above-mentioned problems and uses a thin film manufacturing apparatus such as a vacuum evaporation apparatus, a sputtering apparatus, and an ion plating apparatus that continuously forms a thin film of magnetic metal or the like on a polymer film. The purpose of this is to achieve high crystallization.

As an example of the present invention, FIG. 3 shows the internal structure of a bell jar of a thin film manufacturing apparatus used in an experiment. The configuration of each part is basically the same as the apparatus shown in the conventional example in FIG. A film running system is constituted by the take-up roll 12 that takes up the film. Further, an evaporation source 13 of a magnetic metal material was installed at a position facing the cylindrical can 11, and in this apparatus, a sputtering electrode was installed for the sputtering method. In addition, an opening corresponding to the sputtering electrode 13 is provided between the cylindrical can 11 and the sputtering electrode 13 to prevent the sputtered magnetic metal material from adhering to unnecessary parts inside the bell gear. A board 14 is installed.
In addition, in order to prevent the magnetic metal material sputtered from the gap between the end of the deposition prevention plate 14 and the can 11 from going around and unnecessarily attaching to the polymer film 9, the opening of the deposition prevention plate 14 is An anti-adhesion roller 1 that rotates in contact with the polymer film 9 on the cylindrical can 11 is provided at the film entrance part and the delivery part.
5 and 16 are installed. Anti-stick roller 15,1
6 is provided so as to extend parallel to the axial directions of the supply roll 10 and take-up roll 12, and in a direction perpendicular to the running direction of the polymer film 9 (ie, the width direction of the film).

Using the thin film manufacturing apparatus of the present invention as described above,
First, the inside of the bell gear is evacuated to a vacuum of about 1×10 ^-6 torr through the exhaust port 17, and then the gas inlet 18
The magnetic metal material 19 on the sputtering electrode 13 is sputtered by introducing gas to about 1×10 ^-3 to 1×10 ^-2 torr to continuously spread it over the entire widthwise surface of the polymer film 9 on the cylindrical can 11. A magnetic metal film was formed on the surface. The experiment was conducted under the same sputtering conditions as in the comparative example.

Using the above method, the degree of C-axis crystal orientation of the CoCr alloy film formed on the polymer film was measured using an X-ray defractometer, and as shown in Figure 4, the horizontal axis of the graph was When the reflection angle is 2θ and the vertical axis is the X-ray reflection intensity, the X-ray reflection intensity is approximately 5 times larger than the data obtained in the comparative example (Figure 2), and the C-axis The half width of the angular distribution of the degree of orientation was also within 10°, indicating an improvement in crystallinity.

Furthermore, since the adhesion prevention rollers 15 and 16 rotate in contact with the polymer film 9 on the cylindrical can 11, no scratches or the like occur on the surface of the polymer film 9, and a high-quality magnetic recording medium can be obtained. Ta.

In the above embodiment, the anti-adhesive roller was explained as rotating in synchronization with the cylindrical can, but the present invention is effective even if it is installed at a distance of about 0.5 to 1 mm from the cylindrical can, and the anti-adhesive roller is completely removed. There is no necessity to install it with no gap between the can and the cylindrical can. but,
Even in this case, even if the polymer film comes into contact with the anti-adhesive roller, the anti-adhesive roller rotates synchronously, so there will be no scratches on the surface of the polymer film, and its quality as a magnetic medium will be maintained. Ru.

Furthermore, the anti-adhesive rollers do not need to be installed on both sides of the opening of the anti-adhesive plate, and the present invention is effective as long as they are installed at least at the starting portion of the film to be formed.

Furthermore, although the present invention has been described mainly in the case of producing a magnetic recording medium, it is not limited thereto, and can be applied to other apparatuses for producing thin films that require crystallinity.

As described above, the present invention is directed to a thin film manufacturing apparatus that forms a continuous thin film of a magnetic metal material or the like on the surface of a polymer film using vacuum technology, in which the vapor deposition material deposited or sputtered inside the bell gear is unnecessarily attached. Between the deposition prevention plate and the cylindrical can, a deposition prevention roller is installed between the deposition prevention plate and the cylindrical can to prevent material deposited or sputtered from getting around and adhering to the gap between the deposition prevention plate and the cylindrical can. It is attached near the opening of a film-like substrate in a direction perpendicular to the running direction, and has the advantage of improving the crystallinity of the magnetic metal material formed on the polymer film.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic configuration diagram of a conventional thin film manufacturing apparatus, FIG. 2 is a diagram showing the degree of crystal orientation of a magnetic metal film obtained using the conventional apparatus, and FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a thin film in an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 4, which is a schematic diagram of the manufacturing apparatus, is a diagram showing the degree of crystal orientation of a magnetic metal film obtained using the apparatus. 9... Polymer film, 10... Supply roll,
12... Winding roll, 13... Evaporation source, 14...
...Adhesion prevention plate, 11...Cylindrical can, 15, 16...
...Adhesion prevention roller, 19...Magnetic metal material.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1 a first roll supplying a film-like substrate;
a second roll for winding up the film-like substrate after the thin film has been formed; and a second roll provided between the first roll and the second roll, and arranged to run the film-like substrate along the cylindrical surface. A deposition prevention plate having at least a cylindrical can and an evaporation source provided opposite to the cylindrical can, and having an opening in a portion facing the evaporation source between the cylindrical can and the evaporation source. further provided with an anti-adhesive roller located between the anti-adhesion plate and the cylindrical can and extending in a direction perpendicular to the running direction of the film-like substrate at least near the opening on the first roll side. Thin film manufacturing equipment featuring: