JPH06145980A - Substrate carrier for vacuum film formation - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To provide the carrier capable of lessening the pickup of dust on a substrate at the time of charging and taking out with an inline type film forming device. CONSTITUTION:The substrate carrier disposed as a vertical type is so constituted that the front surface of a substrate holding mask and the surface of the deposition preventive plate of the carrier are flush with each other. As a result, the disturbance in air flow on the carrier surface in the stage of vacuum evacuation and venting according to charging and taking out is suppressed and the peeling of the film from the deposition preventive plate of the carrier is prevented. The stable production of the products on which the dust is less picked up is possible.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a carrier for carrying and holding a substrate of an in-line type film forming apparatus for performing sputtering, vapor deposition, ion plating or chemical vapor deposition.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Generally, an in-line type film forming apparatus has a structure in which a charging chamber, a degassing chamber, one or more film forming chambers, and a take-out chamber are connected to each other through a partition valve. The substrate on which the film is to be formed is conveyed, or is carried together with a carrier to which a plurality of substrates are attached, and the film is formed.

FIG. 1 shows an example of an in-line type film forming apparatus. A substrate attaching / detaching stage for attaching / detaching the substrate to / from the carrier is installed in a clean room, and when the substrate is set, the carrier is sent to a preparation chamber and evacuated. Then, after the evacuation is completed, the carrier is stocked for a certain period of time in order to remove the moisture and the like that have been sent to the degassing chamber and adsorbed on the substrate. Next, the carrier in which the degassing is completed is sequentially sent to the film forming chamber to perform the film forming process. Then, the carrier moves to the take-out chamber and is returned from the vacuum to the atmosphere. Further, the carrier is returned to the substrate loading / unloading stage.

An example of a carrier is shown in FIGS. 2 and 3.
In an in-line type film forming apparatus having a vapor deposition source or a target on its side surface, a vertical carrier is moved between the chambers by a transfer mechanism provided at the bottom. After the carrier moves to the film forming chamber, the substrate rotating mechanism is connected to the center axis of the carrier. When the carrier rotates, the holder is rotated by the action of the planetary gears of the shafts of the holders to which the substrates are attached, respectively, and uniform film formation on the substrates becomes possible. Such a carrier is called a self-revolving carrier. 10 to one carrier
About 20 substrates can be attached. In the case of double-sided film formation, twice the number can be attached.

[0005]

The performance evaluation items of the carrier and the in-line film forming apparatus include not only the manufacturing capacity but also the product yield. In the case of a self-revolving carrier, the film thickness distribution in the substrate has no practical problem. However, it is necessary to improve the generation of defects due to the adhesion of dust to the substrate.

In the case of a vertically arranged carrier, since the substrate is mounted vertically, it is possible to considerably prevent the dust falling from above from adhering to the substrate. However, it is known that dust adheres mainly when the carrier is evacuated from atmospheric pressure to vacuum in the charging chamber and when the carrier is vented from vacuum to atmospheric pressure in the ejection chamber. This is because the airflow is disturbed by a sudden change in atmospheric pressure, dust on the wall surface / floor surface in the room is rolled up, and the film adhered to the carrier adhesion prevention plate is peeled off.

As a countermeasure against this, the slow exhaust / slow vent which moderates a sudden change in atmospheric pressure is first considered. In the slow exhaust, the exhaust speed of the roughing pump is throttled down by a valve, and after exhausting for a certain period of time in that state, the valve is fully opened to perform the main roughing. In addition, in the slow vent, the valve of the nitrogen pipe for venting is initially throttled and then fully opened after a fixed time. If these are sufficiently performed, there is certainly an effect, but it is not preferable in terms of productivity.

Further, as a method for suppressing the turbulence of the air flow at the time of exhausting / venting without sacrificing time, and thus reducing the adhesion of dust to the surface of the substrate, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2-16
Japanese Patent No. 3377 proposes a charging / unloading chamber provided with a gas shower and a current plate. In this method, smooth plates are installed as rectifying plates on both sides of the carrier, and the upper gas introducing pipe is arranged parallel to the carrier cross section. Gas is ejected from a plurality of gas ejection ports of the pipe, and air is exhausted and vented while the air flow is kept in a laminar state by the action of the straightening plate.

However, since the substrate holder is exposed to the front of the carrier deposition plate, the shape of the carrier surface is not smooth, and the air flow may be disturbed.

The problem to be solved by the present invention is to provide a carrier in which the adhesion of dust to a substrate is small.

[0011]

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the present invention is directed to a substrate holding mask and a substrate carrier for holding a substrate by a holder portion, in which the front surface of the substrate holding mask and the surface of the carrier adhesion plate are the same. Provided is a substrate carrier characterized by being on a surface.

As shown in FIG. 4, the substrate carrier of the present invention is such that the surface of the carrier deposition plate and the surface when the substrate and the mask are attached to the substrate holder are aligned. The substrate is attached to the substrate holder in a state of being recessed by the thickness of the mask.

Further, when the carrier does not have the adhesion-preventing plate, it is obvious that the same effect can be obtained by matching the surface of the carrier with the front surface of the mask.

[0014]

EXAMPLE An example is shown in FIGS. The sputter carrier faces the target, and the deposition-inhibiting plate 4 and the deposition-inhibiting plate 5 are insulated from the ground potential of the carrier body and have a float potential. In the carrier of the present invention, while keeping this structure, the deposition preventive plate 4 is separated from the main body by inserting a spacer, and is aligned with the outer peripheral portion of the outer mask. Further, in the carrier of the present invention, in order to reduce the adhered dust, the portion corresponding to the outer periphery of the carrier of the deposition-inhibitory plate 4 is inclined to reduce the disturbance of the flow of the gas for venting from above. Further, the cross-sectional shape of the beam portion supporting the orbiting bearing of the carrier is also inclined so as to prevent the gas flow from being disturbed.

Next, the case of manufacturing a magneto-optical disk with an in-line sputtering apparatus will be described. A system diagram is shown in FIG. This apparatus comprises a substrate attaching / detaching stage in a clean room, a charging chamber, a degassing chamber, a pretreatment chamber, film forming chambers 1 to 4, and a takeout chamber.

The substrate is attached to the substrate holder of the carrier by an outer mask and an inner mask. Further, these masks are held by the magnetic force of the magnet in the substrate holder.

After mounting the substrate on the substrate mounting / demounting stage in this manner, the carrier is transported to the charging chamber, the door valve is closed, and the vacuum exhaust is started. At this time, since the exhaust port of the vacuum pump is arranged at the bottom of the charging chamber, the gas flow during vacuum exhaust is from top to bottom. Further, in the take-out chamber, after the carrier is transported in a vacuum atmosphere, nitrogen is flown from the upper gas inlet to return it to atmospheric pressure. At this time, the gas flow is from top to bottom.

Table 1 shows the measurement results of the amount of dust generated in the vicinity of the carrier in the charging chamber and the unloading chamber. The exhaust condition was a slow rough exhaust after 2 minutes of slow exhaust, and the vent condition was a main vent after 2 minutes of slow vent. The measurement is by a particle counter using a laser. Also, Table 1
The value shown in (1) indicates an integrated value for 60 seconds as an average number of 20 batches of dust having a size of 0.38 μm to 2 μm.

[0019]

[Table 1]

From the results shown in Table 1, it can be understood that the conventional carrier generally produces a large number of dust particles. Further, since the bottom has a larger value, it is considered that the peeling of the film from the carrier surface has an effect. In the carrier of the present invention, the dust value is low in both the center and the bottom, and it can be understood that the air flow on the carrier surface is turbulent and the film is successfully separated.

A comparison of the bit error rate of a magneto-optical disk, which is closely related to the adhesion of dust, was performed using the conventional carrier and the carrier of the present invention. The measurement results are shown in FIG. From the results shown in FIG. 6, it can be understood that the carrier of the present invention improves the byte error rate.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a system diagram of an example of a conventional in-line type film forming apparatus.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 carrier 2 substrate attachment / detachment stage 3 preparation chamber 4 degassing chamber 5 pretreatment chamber 6 first film formation chamber 7 second film formation chamber 8 third film formation chamber 9 extraction chamber 10 clean room

FIG. 2 is a front view of an example of a conventional carrier.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 substrate 2 inner mask 3 outer mask 4 deposition plate 5 deposition plate 6 gear 7 bearing support plate for revolution

FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view of an example of a conventional carrier.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Substrate 2 Inner Mask 3 Outer Mask 4 Protective Plate 5 Protective Plate 6 Gear 7 Rotation Bearing 8 Insulator 9 Insulator 10 Revolution Bearing 11 Protective Plate 12 Revolution Bearing Support Plate

FIG. 4 is a front view of an example of the carrier of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 substrate 2 inner mask 3 outer mask 4 deposition plate 5 gear 6 bearing support plate for revolution

FIG. 5 is a cross-sectional view of an example of the carrier of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Substrate 2 Inner Mask 3 Outer Mask 4 Adhesion Plate 5 Gear 6 Rotation Bearing 7 Insulator 8 Insulator 9 Revolution Bearing 10 Adhesion Plate 11 Revolution Bearing Support

FIG. 6 is a system diagram of an example of an in-line type sputtering device.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Substrate Attachment / Detach Stage 2 Clean Conveyor 3 Preparation Room 4 Degassing Room 5 Pretreatment Room 6 1st Sputtering Room 7 2nd Sputtering Room 8 3rd Sputtering Room 9 4th Sputtering Room 10 Extracting Room 11 Traverser 12 Clean Room

FIG. 7 is a table showing measured values of bite error rates of magneto-optical disks manufactured using the carrier of the present invention and the conventional carrier, respectively.

[Explanation of symbols]

 ○ When manufactured using the carrier of the present invention △ When manufactured using a conventional carrier

 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (72) Inventor Hideki Obayashi 24-1-A-210 Rokuzaki, Sakura City, Chiba Prefecture

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A substrate carrier for holding a substrate by a substrate holding mask and a holder part, wherein the front face of the substrate holding mask and the surface of the carrier adhesion plate are on the same surface. 2. The substrate carrier according to claim 1, which has a self-revolving function, a revolving function or a stationary facing function.