JPH0533304B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to an ion beam evaporation apparatus for forming a thin film on the surface of a metal sheet.

[Conventional technology]

Conventionally, a thin film is formed on the surface of a metal sheet to modify the sheet surface (improve hardness, improve abrasion resistance, improve corrosion resistance, reduce coefficient of friction, and improve color and gloss).

Formation of such a thin film is performed using an ion beam evaporation apparatus shown in FIG. In the figure,
Reference numeral 40 denotes a member to be deposited made of a metal sheet such as a steel plate, and is moved horizontally in the direction of the arrow within the vacuum chamber 42 by rollers 44 . Further, in the vacuum chamber 42, below the member to be evaporated 40, evaporation sources 46, 48 and ion sources 50, 52 are provided in the conveying direction of the member to be evaporated 40.
are arranged alternately. Evaporation source 46,
Reference numeral 48 irradiates an electron beam from an electron gun (not shown) to deposit vapor deposited materials (for example,
The deposition material 54 is vaporized by heating the Ti) 54 with an electron beam. Further, the ion sources 50 and 52 accelerate and irradiate ions of an element such as N toward the member 40 to be evaporated, thereby performing, for example, ion implantation.

Next, the operation of forming a thin film on the lower surface of the member to be deposited 40 will be explained.

First, the evaporation material evaporated from the evaporation source 46 is deposited on the lower surface of the member 40 to be evaporated, forming a evaporation layer with a thickness of about 300 Å.

Next, N ions having an energy of about 30 KeV are irradiated from the ion source 50 toward the vapor deposited layer, injected into the vapor deposited layer, and the member to be vapor deposited is
A mixing layer in which TiN and the constituent atoms of the member 40 to be deposited are mixed is formed on the lower surface of the substrate 0 .

Furthermore, similarly to , evaporation by the evaporation source 48 and low energy (several
A TiN layer is further formed on the mixing layer formed by ion implantation (KeV), and a TiN thin film with a desired thickness is formed on the member 40 to be evaporated.

[Problem that the invention seeks to solve]

However, according to the ion beam evaporation apparatus configured in this way, the evaporation sources 46 and 48 and the ion sources 50 and 52 are attached to the member to be evaporated 40 that is transported horizontally.
Since the evaporation sources 46 and 48
The vapor deposition material 54 evaporated from the ion sources 50, 52
There was a problem in that the ion sources 50, 52 were likely to become dirty due to the dust falling into the interior of the building, and cleaning the ion sources 50, 52 was time consuming. In addition, the member to be evaporated 40
Since the evaporation sources 46 and 48 and the ion sources 50 and 52 are transported horizontally, the evaporation sources 46 and 48 and the ion sources 50 and 52 should be
and rollers 44 before and after the ion source 52
It is necessary to narrow the interval between. Therefore, the evaporation material 54 evaporated from the evaporation sources 46 and 48 is transferred to the roller 4.
There was a problem that the particles adhered to the rollers 44 and cleaning the rollers 44 took time and effort.

An object of the present invention is to provide an ion beam evaporation apparatus in which evaporation material evaporated into an ion source is less likely to fall as dust and adhere to a conveyance means, and which can be easily maintained.

[Means to solve the problem]

The ion beam evaporation apparatus of the present invention includes a vacuum chamber, a conveying means for vertically conveying a sheet-like member to be evaporated in the vacuum chamber, and a evaporator to be evaporated on the side of the member to be evaporated in the vacuum chamber. an evaporation source, which is provided with evaporation surfaces facing each other, and evaporates the evaporation material by heat generated by arc discharge between the evaporation material serving as a cathode and the vacuum chamber serving as an anode, and ionizes the evaporation material evaporated by arc plasma; a bias power supply that applies a bias voltage between the vacuum chamber and the member to be deposited to attract the ionized deposition material to the member to be deposited; The device includes an ion source that is provided in the tank and irradiates the vapor deposition layer deposited on the surface of the member to be vapor-deposited with ions.

[Effect]

According to the configuration of the present invention, the evaporation source and the ion source are arranged on the sides of the member to be vapor-deposited while the member to be vapor-deposited is conveyed vertically, so that evaporated vapor-deposited material is less likely to fall into the ion source as dust.

In addition, the evaporation surface of the evaporation source is placed to face the member to be evaporated, and the evaporation material is evaporated by the heat generated by the arc discharge between the evaporation material that becomes the cathode and the vacuum chamber that becomes the anode in the evaporation source, and the evaporation material that has been evaporated by the arc plasma is evaporated. By ionizing the evaporation material and then drawing the ionized evaporation material to the target member using a bias power supply, the evaporation material evaporated from the evaporation source can be efficiently deposited on the target member, and the evaporation material can be efficiently deposited on the target member. There is no problem of reduced deposition efficiency due to vertical conveyance of the member. In this way, the evaporation surface of the evaporation source can be made to face the surface to be evaporated, not by melting the entire evaporation material, but by melting only a small portion of the arc spot generated by arc discharge on the surface of the evaporation material. This is because only a small amount of the material becomes high temperature and melts, and the molten vapor deposition material does not drip down even if the vapor deposition surface is upright.

Furthermore, since the member to be evaporated is conveyed vertically, the member to be evaporated does not sag, and the distance between the conveying means before and after the evaporation source and the ion source can be increased. Therefore, the evaporation material evaporated from the evaporation source is less likely to adhere to the conveying means. In this way, the evaporated deposition material is less likely to fall into the ion source as dust, and is also less likely to adhere to the transport means, making maintenance easier.

Furthermore, since the vapor deposition material is melted by arc discharge, only the portion of the vapor deposition material where the discharge occurs is melted. Therefore, even if the evaporation source is placed on the side of the member to be evaporated, the evaporation material will not spill out.

〔Example〕

An embodiment of the present invention will be described based on FIGS. 1 and 2. This ion beam evaporation equipment is
As shown in FIG. 1, a sheet-shaped member to be evaporated 14 is vertically conveyed into a vacuum chamber 10 by a conveying means 12, and evaporation sources 16a, 16b, 16c are placed on the side of the member to be evaporated in the vacuum chamber 10. , 16d are provided, and an ion source 18a,
18b, 18c, and 18d are provided.

The evaporation sources 16a to 16d include cathodes 24a, 24b, 24c, and 24 located on the sides of the member 14 to be evaporated.
The cathodes 24a, 24b, 24c, and 24d made of the evaporation material are evaporated by the heat generated by the arc discharge between the evaporation material d and the vacuum chamber 10, which is the anode, and the evaporation material evaporated by the arc plasma is ionized. The ionized evaporation material is attracted to the evaporation target member 14 by a bias voltage applied between the vacuum chamber 10 and the evaporation target member 14 by the bias power supply 34 .

Further, the ion sources 18a to 18d irradiate the vapor deposition layer deposited on the surface of the member 14 to be vapor-deposited with ions, and implant the ions, for example.

The vacuum chamber 10 is made of a conductive material such as metal, and auxiliary vacuum chambers 20 and 22 are formed above and below to maintain the inside of the vacuum chamber 10 at a predetermined degree of vacuum. The member to be evaporated 14 is made of a metal sheet or the like, and is placed in the vacuum chamber 10.
By means of a conveyance means 12 consisting of rollers provided in
It is vertically conveyed in the vacuum chamber 10 from top to bottom.

Evaporation sources 16a-16d and ion sources 18a-18
d are arranged in parallel on both sides of the member to be evaporated 14 in the vacuum chamber 10 . On one side of the member 14 to be evaporated, evaporation sources 16 are arranged from top to bottom of the vacuum chamber 10.
a, ion source 18a, evaporation source 16b, ion source 1
8b is provided to form a thin film on one side of the member 14 to be evaporated. Further, on the other side of the member to be evaporated 14, evaporation sources 16 are arranged from top to bottom of the vacuum chamber 10.
c, ion source 18c, evaporation source 16d, ion source 1
8d is provided to form a thin film on the other surface of the member 14 to be evaporated. Each of the evaporation sources 16a to 16d includes cathodes 24a to 24d made of a vapor deposition material such as Ti fixed to the vacuum chamber 10, trigger electrodes 26a to 26d provided at the center of the cathodes 24a to 24d, and cathodes 24a to 24d. The arc power supplies 28a to 28d are connected to the vacuum chamber 10 with a negative electrode connected to the vacuum tank 10 and the trigger electrodes 26a to 26d and the positive electrode is connected to the trigger electrodes 26a to 26d.
and the resistors 30a to 30d provided between the cathode 24 and
It is composed of insulators 31a to 31d for insulating a to 24d from the vacuum chamber 10 which is at ground potential. Further, the ion sources 18a to 18d extract, for example, N ions from the multi-apertures 32a to 32d, accelerate them, and irradiate the member 14 to be evaporated. The bias power supply 34 is a DC power supply whose negative electrode is in contact with the member 14 to be evaporated and whose positive electrode is connected to the vacuum chamber 10 . Moreover, FIG. 2 shows a perspective view of essential parts of the ion beam evaporation apparatus.

Next, the operation of forming a thin film on both sides of the member 14 to be vapor-deposited will be explained. Note that since thin films are formed on both sides of the member 14 to be vapor-deposited in the same manner,
Only the left side surface of the member 14 to be deposited in FIG. 1 in the plane of the paper will be described, and the description of the right side surface will be omitted.

First, one or more transport means 12 connected to a drive source (not shown) is driven to transport the member 14 to be deposited from top to bottom.

The evaporation material is evaporated from the evaporation source 16a and deposited on the surface of the member 14 to be evaporated to form a evaporation layer with a thickness of about 300 Å. The vapor deposition material is vapor-deposited as follows. First, an arc discharge occurs between the trigger electrode 26a and the cathode 24a, vaporizing the vapor deposition material, and further, an arc occurs between the cathode 24a made of the vapor deposition material and the vacuum chamber 10, which is the anode, via the vaporized vapor deposition material. A discharge occurs, and the deposition material is evaporated and ionized. The evaporated and ionized deposition material is attracted to the surface of the member to be deposited 14 by the bias voltage from the bias power supply 34 and is deposited on the side surface of the member to be deposited 14 to form Ti.
Form a vapor deposited layer.

N ions having an energy of, for example, 30 KeV are irradiated from the ion source 18a toward the deposited layer formed by the ion source 18a and injected into the deposited layer, and the member 14 to be deposited is injected into the deposited layer.
A mixing layer in which TiN and the constituent atoms of the member 14 to be evaporated are mixed is formed on the surface of the evaporator.

Next, the evaporation material is evaporated from the evaporation source 16b and deposited on the mixing layer formed in .

Furthermore, N ions of low energy (for example, several KeV) are irradiated and implanted from the ion source 18b,
A TiN thin film having a desired thickness is formed on the member 14 to be vapor-deposited.

In addition, the vaporized from the evaporation sources 16a and 16b
Ti and N ions from the ion sources 18a and 18b reach the member 14 with a certain spread, so that the surface of the member 14 is simultaneously evaporated with Ti and irradiated with N ions. There are parts that are done.

In the above manner, both sides of the member 14 to be vapor-deposited are coated.
Form a TiN thin film.

According to the ion beam evaporation apparatus configured in this way, the member to be evaporated 14 is conveyed vertically, and the evaporation sources 16a to 16d and the ion sources 18a to 18d are arranged on the sides of the member to be evaporated 14, so that the evaporated deposition material is Materials are less likely to fall into the ion sources 18a-18d. Further, since the member 14 to be evaporated is conveyed vertically, the member 14 to be evaporated does not sag, and the evaporation sources 16a, 16c and the ion source 18
It is possible to increase the distance between the conveying means 12 before and after b and 18d. Therefore, evaporation source 1
The vapor deposition material evaporated from 6a to 16d is transferred to the conveying means 1.
It becomes difficult to adhere to 2. In this way, the evaporated deposition material is less likely to fall into the ion sources 18a to 18d as dust, and is also less likely to adhere to the transport means 12, making maintenance such as cleaning easier.

Furthermore, since the vapor deposition material is melted by arc discharge, only the portion of the vapor deposition material where the discharge occurs is melted. Therefore, even if the evaporation sources 16a to 16d are arranged on the sides of the member 14 to be evaporated, the evaporation material will not spill.

Further, the member to be evaporated 14 is conveyed vertically, and the evaporation sources 16a to 16d and the ion sources 18a to 18d are arranged in parallel on both sides of the member to be evaporated, so that a thin film can be formed on both sides of the member to be evaporated. Therefore, a thin film can be formed on both sides of the member to be evaporated 14 by simply transporting it from top to bottom in the vacuum chamber 10, and the thin film forming operation can be easily performed.

Furthermore, since the ion sources 18a to 18d irradiate the member 14 to be evaporated with sufficient energy necessary to cause a TiN reaction, there is no need to preheat the member 14 to be evaporated, and the temperature is low. Thin film formation can be performed in this state.

In the above embodiment, two sets of evaporation sources and two ion sources were arranged on each side of the member 14 to be evaporated. One set each may be provided. Further, before the evaporation operation using the evaporation source, the surface of the member 14 to be evaporated may be cleaned and activated using the ion source. Furthermore, in this example, a thin film of metal nitride such as TiN was formed on the surface of the member 14 to be evaporated, but Al was evaporated with an evaporation source and Ar ions were irradiated with an ion source to coat the surface of the member 14 with Al. Of course, it is also possible to form a thin film of metal carbide on TiC by evaporating Ti from an evaporation source and irradiating it with C ions from an ion source.

〔Effect of the invention〕

According to the ion beam evaporation apparatus of the present invention, the member to be evaporated is conveyed vertically and the evaporation source and the ion source are arranged on the side of the member to be evaporated, so that the evaporated material is less likely to fall into the ion source as dust. Become.

In addition, the evaporation surface of the evaporation source faces the member to be evaporated, and in the evaporation source, the evaporation material is evaporated by heat generated by arc discharge between the cathode, which is the evaporation material, and the vacuum chamber, which is the anode, and the evaporation material is ionized by the arc plasma. Furthermore, by attracting the ionized deposition material to the member to be deposited using the bias power supply, the deposition material evaporated from the evaporation source can be efficiently deposited onto the member to be deposited. The problem of reduced vapor deposition efficiency due to vertical conveyance does not occur.

Furthermore, since the member to be evaporated is conveyed vertically, the member to be evaporated does not sag, and the distance between the conveying means before and after the evaporation source and the ion source can be increased. Therefore, the evaporation material evaporated from the evaporation source is less likely to adhere to the conveying means. In this way, the evaporated deposition material is less likely to fall into the ion source as dust, and is less likely to adhere to the transport means, making maintenance easier.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a perspective view of the main part thereof, and FIG. 3 is a perspective view of a conventional example. 10... Vacuum chamber, 12... Transport means, 14...
Evaporation target member, 16a to 16d... Evaporation source, 18a
~18d...Ion source, 26a-26d...Trigger electrode, 34...Bias power supply.

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] 1. A vacuum chamber; a conveying means for vertically conveying a sheet-like member to be deposited in the vacuum chamber; an evaporation source that is provided with faces facing each other and that evaporates the evaporation material by heat generated by arc discharge between the evaporation material serving as the cathode and the vacuum chamber serving as the anode, and ionizes the evaporation material evaporated by the arc plasma; a bias power source that applies a bias voltage between the tank and the member to be evaporated to attract the ionized evaporation material to the member to be evaporated; An ion beam evaporation apparatus comprising: an ion source that is installed in the evaporation layer and irradiates the evaporation layer deposited on the surface of the member to be evaporated with ions;