JPH03188269A - Device for melting vapor depositing material of vapor deposition device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To uniformly melt a material for vapor deposition and to enhance the quality of vapor deposition by disposing an image pickup device so as to diametrically face a crucible and controlling the irradiation mechanism of an energy beam by the output obtd. by computer processing of images. CONSTITUTION:A television camera 10 is disposed to face a photographing window 7 above the ceiling of a vapor deposition chamber 1 diametrically facing the crucible 2. A granular material 3 to be evaporated is put into the crucible 2. The video signal of the television camera 10 is inputted to a computer and is binarized to obtain image data. An irradiation pattern is determined from this data. Position and posture commands are then emitted to the controller of an irradiation mechanism 4 for an electron beam. The initial state of the material for vapor deposition and the melting state during the course of the evaporation are recognized as the image data according to these states and only the non-melted part is irradiated with the electron beam and, therefore, the evaporation is uniform and the vapor deposition is uniform and good in quality as well.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION (Industrial Application Field) The present invention relates to a device for controlling the dissolution of a vapor deposition material in a vapor deposition apparatus used for film formation or the like.

(Prior Art) Thin films are widely formed on the surfaces of products such as anti-reflection coatings for glasses and camera lenses, as well as semiconductor devices, and there are various methods for forming thin films.

Methods for forming thin films can roughly be divided into physical methods and chemical methods. Physical methods involve thermally evaporating the deposition material and depositing it on the target product, and there are various heating methods. be.

Among these, those that heat by irradiating an electron beam are
It is suitable for vapor deposition of high melting point materials such as a and MO, but if the electron beam is not uniformly irradiated onto the vapor deposition material, the vapor deposition material will not dissolve uniformly (this will result in uneven vapor deposition. The evaporation material used in the seeding device is in the form of powder, particles or pellets;
It is placed in a crucible as shown in Figures (11) and (b) and irradiated with an electron beam. By the way, since the electron beam should uniformly irradiate the surface of the evaporation material, not only the position and orientation of the beam irradiation mechanism is controlled to ensure the irradiation position or irradiation range, but also the spread of the beam itself must be controlled to a certain extent. It is adjustable. However, if the irradiation range is simply made to match the opening of the crucible, the amount of evaporation may become non-uniform in the case of powdered or particulate vapor deposition material because the material falls down from the surrounding area to the melting zone unevenly. In addition, some pellet-shaped evaporation materials have a shape different from the opening of the crucible, so if the electron beam irradiation range is set to cover the entire opening of the crucible, the electron beam will be irradiated A+ on unnecessary parts and the process will be completed. 1 q-nζ艷×1 电子)・A thousand times! IItA Shoen I I key; Atsushi Hi;
3k) Then r- is cut l--)-ζ7MeC-5i and y=There are areas where the irradiation is not performed, and the evaporation is uneven, which may result in uneven evaporation.

Therefore, before starting evaporation, it is necessary to determine the irradiation range of the electron beam (of course, it is necessary to check the melting state of the evaporation material and change the irradiation position of the electron beam, widen the beam width, or Although the irradiation range may be changed, it is extremely difficult to visually check the melted state of the vapor deposition material during evaporation through the viewing window, so it is necessary to confirm the initial shape of the vapor deposition material before starting the vapor deposition and visually check the melted state. is carried out when the vapor deposition is stopped.For this reason, the electron beam irradiation does not perfectly match the shape and melting state of the vapor deposition material (this will only make the vapor deposition non-uniform. In some cases, the evaporation material and irradiation energy are wasted.These problems are not limited to electron beam irradiation (they are common to melting by energy beam irradiation).

(Problems to be Solved) This invention focuses on these points, and improves the quality of vapor deposition by accurately uniformizing the melting of the vapor deposition material in a vapor deposition apparatus using energy beam vapor deposition. The task is to do so.

(Means and effects for solving the problem) In this invention,
A window with a shutter is provided in the evaporation chamber directly facing the crucible containing the surface of the evaporation material, and an imaging device is made to look through this window. and,
The output of the imaging device is manually input to a computer that stores programs for image processing and irradiation range determination, and the output of the computer is input to the control device of the energy beam irradiation mechanism.

The shutter is opened, the surface of the vapor deposition material to be irradiated with the energy beam is photographed, the video signal is sent to the computer, and the shutter is closed. Photography can also be done during vapor deposition, but if done during vapor deposition, the vapor deposition material will adhere to the window and the transparency of the window will be lost, which will hinder subsequent photography. Since there are times when it is necessary to take photographs, photographs are usually taken before and after evaporation or during preheating.

The video signal input to the computer is image-processed, and if the vapor deposition material is before melting, its initial shape is recognized as image data, and if it is in the process of being melted, the shape of the undissolved part is recognized. be done. In any case,
Since the range to be irradiated with the energy beam is recognized, position and attitude commands for the beam irradiation mechanism are output to irradiate this range.

(Example) An example of one embodiment in which a deposition material is evaporated by electron beam irradiation and deposited on a substrate will be described with reference to FIGS. 1 to 8.

A crucible 2 is placed at the bottom of a vacuum-sealed vapor deposition chamber 1 and granular vapor deposition material 3 is placed therein, and on the middle side of the vapor deposition chamber 1,
An electron beam irradiation mechanism 4 is arranged facing the vapor deposition material 3. This irradiation mechanism 4 is connected to a control device 5 for controlling its position and orientation. The upper part of the vapor deposition part is provided with a substrate mounting part (not shown) except for the central part, and the substrate 6 is mounted thereon. In addition, a photographing window 7 is provided in the center of the ceiling surface of the vapor deposition chamber, and the inside thereof is surrounded by a low cylindrical enclosure 8.
An opening/closing shutter 9 is installed in the center. and,
A television camera 10 is placed above the ceiling of the deposition chamber so as to face a photographing window 7. Furthermore, the image signal output of the television camera 10 is connected to the human power of the computer 11.

When carrying out vapor deposition using this apparatus, a granular vapor deposition material 3 is placed in a crucible 2 as shown in FIG. 3(a), and its surface is leveled. Prior to the start of vapor deposition, the shutter 9 is opened and an image is taken, and a video signal corresponding to that shown in FIG. 3(a) is input to the computer 11.

Since the computer 11 stores programs for image processing and irradiation pattern determination, it binarizes this video signal to obtain image data as shown in FIG. Then, as shown in FIG. 6, the inside of this arc image is determined as the irradiation pattern, and position and orientation commands are issued to the control device of the irradiation mechanism so that the electron beam is irradiated within this range along the path indicated by the arrow.

Based on these instructions, we irradiated the electron beam, performed vapor deposition, and formed a thin film on the appropriate lot of substrates.
Looking at the melting state of the vapor deposition material 3, it is assumed that the melting state is as shown in FIG. 7 due to variations in the state of shearing of the vapor deposition material particles accompanying the melting.Therefore, in the same order as described above,
The evaporation material is photographed, an irradiation pattern is determined as shown in FIG. 8, and the next loft is deposited.

In this way, the initial state of the evaporation material and the melting state during evaporation are recognized as image data, and the electron beam is irradiated only to the undissolved parts, so that the evaporation is uneven (and the evaporation is uniform and of high quality). Also, there is no wastage of irradiation energy and no damage to the crucible.

As another example, the vapor deposition material is not limited to a granular material (although it may be a powdered material or a tablet material), it can be applied in the same manner as described above, and it can be applied to other energy beams such as a laser beam. The path to be scanned by the energy beam should be determined as appropriate depending on the shape of the irradiation range (the shape of the irradiation range may also be replaced with a simpler approximation as appropriate).

In addition, as an embodiment of another aspect, the imaging device in the above embodiment is replaced with a television camera, and the tip of the optical fiber is directly opposed to the crucible, and the other end is guided outside the vapor deposition chamber through an appropriate route to the solid-state imaging device. There is something connected.

(Effects) As described above, according to the present invention, the irradiation range is determined according to the melting of the vapor deposition material, and the energy beam is irradiated to that range to perform vapor deposition. A good vapor deposition film can be formed.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

The drawings show an embodiment of the present invention, in which FIG. 1 is a schematic structural diagram, FIG. 2 is a block diagram, and FIG. 3 is a plan view.
Figure 4 is a flow diagram, Figures 5, 6, 7 and 8.
The figure is a plan view. In the drawing, 1 is a vapor deposition chamber, 2 is a crucible, 3 is a vapor deposition material, 4 is an electron beam irradiation mechanism, 9 is a shutter, 10 is a television camera, and 11 is a computer.

Claims (1)

[Claims] A crucible containing the vapor deposition material is disposed at the bottom of the vapor deposition chamber of a vapor deposition apparatus for heating and vaporizing the vapor deposition material using an energy beam to form a vapor deposition film, and an energy beam is directed toward the crucible. In a melting apparatus equipped with an energy beam irradiation mechanism, an imaging device is placed in a position directly facing the crucible, and a program is stored therein for determining an irradiation range of the energy beam from image processing and image data obtained by the image processing. A vapor deposition material melting apparatus, which inputs a video signal output from the imaging device into a computer, and inputs a position/attitude control signal output from the computer into a control device for the energy beam irradiation mechanism. (2) In the vapor deposition material melting apparatus according to claim 1,
The imaging device has a photographing window with a shutter placed at a position directly facing the crucible, and is faced directly to the photographing window. (3) In the vapor deposition material melting apparatus according to claim 1,
The imaging device has one end of an optical fiber disposed at a position directly facing the crucible, and the other end of the optical fiber is connected to a solid-state imaging device located at an appropriate position.