JPH07235092A - Magneto-optical disk manufacturing device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To enable a magneto-optical disk having a high magnetic characteristics to be effectively manufactured by releasing gas contained in a substrate and carrier in a degasification chamber and carrying in the carrier to a film-forming chamber as it is. CONSTITUTION:The carrier 1 holding the substrate, a substrate holder and a mask, is transported by a transfer line 2 and supplied to a charging chamber 4 through a sluice valve 3. After the carrier 1 is transported, the charging chamber 4 is evacuated to a specified degree of the vacuum. Thereafter, the carrier 1 is transported to the degasification chamber 7. In the degasification chamber, degasification of the substrate, substrate holder, etc., is carried out, and the carrier 1 upon the completion of degasification is sent to the film- forming chamber 10. In the film-forming chamber 10, particles in a target 13a are sputtered by a sputtering cathode 12a to form a thin film which is a component of the target 13a on the substrate. When the film formation is completed, the carrier 1 is sent to a discharging chamber 15 through the sluice valve 14.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a magneto-optical disk manufacturing apparatus.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, an optical recording / reproducing apparatus for irradiating a recording medium with a laser beam to record / reproduce information has been widely used. Among them, a magneto-optical disk apparatus utilizing a magneto-optical effect is used for recording. In addition to being able to rewrite the contents, it is possible to overwrite so-called new information without erasing the contents once recorded, so-called overwrite,
Its uses are rapidly expanding. The magneto-optical disk used in the magneto-optical disk device is a substrate made of polycarbonate resin, acrylic resin, amorphous olefin resin, etc., on which an amorphous alloy thin film made of a rare earth metal, a transition metal or the like is deposited by a vapor deposition method, a sputtering method or the like, a dielectric. It is generally constituted by forming a recording film made of a protective film, an Al reflective film and the like, and further laminating an ultraviolet curable resin layer thereon.

When the recording film is formed, it is required that the film forming chamber is not contaminated from the outside, and therefore the film forming chamber must be kept in a high vacuum state. On the other hand, in the preparation chamber where the substrate is sent from the atmosphere to a vacuum for film formation, the deterioration of the recording film due to oxidation is suppressed as much as possible, and the carrier including the substrate holder and the mask and the moisture contained in the substrate are sufficiently contained. It is necessary to remove and further perform pretreatment such as heating in order to relieve the stress of the substrate generated at the time of molding. As a device that satisfies these conditions and achieves high production efficiency, a continuous manufacturing device that is configured as a monoline, such as a molding process, a film forming process, and a protective film coating process by applying an ultraviolet curable resin, is generally known. Has been. It is common to use a monoline manufacturing apparatus to manufacture a read-only optical disk, such as a compact disk (CD), a CD-ROM, or a laser disk (LD), which is already composed of only one reflective layer of Al. Is.

[0004]

A magneto-optical disk having a recording film of a rare earth-transition metal amorphous alloy thin film,
When the plastic of the substrate contains a large amount of water, a large amount of gas components are released under vacuum during the formation of a recording film,
The characteristics of the recording film may deteriorate. Therefore, it is common to perform a pretreatment by placing the molded substrate under vacuum for a long time using a vacuum dryer or the like before forming the recording film.
Further, if the internal stress generated during molding remains on the substrate used for the magneto-optical disk, the birefringence of the molded substrate increases, and if the recording film is formed as it is, the recording characteristics may deteriorate. Therefore, it is common to leave the molded substrate in the atmosphere for a long time or to perform a pretreatment such as a heat treatment before forming the film. In addition, in order to release the gas components from the substrate holder, mask, etc., which are required during film formation,
Often pre-processed. If the pretreatment is performed as described above, not only the apparatus for manufacturing the magneto-optical disk becomes large, but also the clean room in which the apparatus is installed becomes huge, and not only the investment cost rises but also the running cost of production. Will also be higher.

The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and an object of the present invention is to provide an apparatus for efficiently manufacturing a magneto-optical disk having excellent characteristics.

[0006]

A magneto-optical disk manufacturing apparatus according to the present invention which achieves the above-mentioned object, comprises a charging chamber for reducing the pressure of a carrier holding a substrate from atmospheric pressure to high vacuum, and a carrier passing through the charging chamber. And a deposition chamber for releasing the gas contained in the substrate and the carrier under high vacuum, and a deposition chamber for loading the carrier via the degassing chamber and forming a recording film on the substrate. And

In the magneto-optical disk manufacturing apparatus of the present invention, the degree of vacuum in the degassing chamber is preferably 0.5 Pa or less in order to prevent oxidation of the recording film and obtain high magnetic characteristics. The water content of the substrate and the carrier when loaded into the film forming chamber from the gas chamber is preferably 1000 ppm or less.

[0008]

In the present invention, the degassing chamber maintained at a high degree of vacuum is provided between the deposition chamber for depressurizing the carrier to which the substrate is attached from atmospheric pressure to high vacuum and the film forming chamber. The gas contained in the substrate and carrier is released in the chamber,
Since the carrier is carried into the film formation chamber as it is, the amount of water contained in the substrate during film formation is small, and since the gas released from the substrate during film formation is small, the degree of vacuum required for film formation is reduced. The time required to evacuate the film forming chamber for obtaining the film is short, and oxidation of the recording film during film formation is prevented.

[0009]

FIG. 1 shows the configuration of an in-line sputtering apparatus as an example of the magneto-optical disk manufacturing apparatus of the present invention. A carrier 1 holding a substrate obtained by injection molding or the like, a substrate holder, and a mask for forming a non-film-forming region on the inner and outer peripheral portions is sent by a transfer line 2 and supplied from a partition valve 3 to a charging chamber 4. The charging chamber 4 has an exhaust port 5 connected to a vacuum pump (not shown), and after the carrier 1 is loaded, it is exhausted from atmospheric pressure to a predetermined vacuum degree. After that, the carrier 1 is sent to the degassing chamber 7 from the partition valve 6 in front of the charging chamber 4. The degassing chamber 7 has an exhaust port 8 and a predetermined vacuum degree is maintained by a vacuum pump (not shown). The substrate, the substrate holder, and the like are degassed in the degassing chamber, and the carrier 1 that has been degassed is sent to the film forming chamber 10 through the slit 9. The film forming chamber 10 has an exhaust port 11, which is evacuated by a vacuum pump (not shown) to maintain a predetermined degree of vacuum. In the film forming chamber 10, the particles of the target 13a are sputtered by the sputter cathode 12a to form a thin film of the component of the target 13a on the substrate. The sputter cathode 12b and the target 13b are preliminary members provided for replacing the target. Although only one film forming chamber is shown in FIG. 1, it is necessary to provide a plurality of film forming chambers according to the number of layers forming the recording film of the magneto-optical disk. When the film formation is completed, the carrier 1 is sent to the take-out chamber 15 via the partition valve 14. In the take-out chamber 15, the exhaust port 1
6 is provided and is held at a predetermined vacuum degree in advance by a vacuum pump (not shown). After returning the inside of the take-out chamber 15 to which the carrier is supplied to the atmospheric pressure, the substrate is taken out from the partition valve 17 to the outside.

Although the in-line sputtering apparatus has been described above, the magneto-optical disk manufacturing apparatus of the present invention may be of a passage type, a rotary type, a single-wafer type or the like.

[0011]

According to the magneto-optical disk manufacturing apparatus of the present invention, a magneto-optical disk having high magnetic characteristics can be efficiently manufactured.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram showing an example of a magneto-optical disk manufacturing apparatus of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Carrier 2 Transfer Line 4 Preparation Room 7 Degassing Room 10 Film Forming Room

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A charging chamber for reducing the pressure of a carrier holding a substrate from atmospheric pressure to high vacuum, and a degassing chamber for discharging the gas contained in the substrate and the carrier under high vacuum into which the carrier is loaded. And a film forming chamber for forming a recording film on a substrate into which a carrier is loaded via a degassing chamber.