JPS62127473A - Apparatus for forming film by plasma - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To prevent the floating of powder and to form a high-quality thin film on a support in excellent productivity by hanging plural pieces of supports in the inside of a reaction chamber and transferring the surfaces thereof and causing plasma in the inside of the reaction chamber. CONSTITUTION:The supports 4 are fitted to plural rods 6 respectively and arranged in a line in the center of a reaction chamber 1. A couple of electrodes 11, 12 are opposed in both sides so as to sandwich this support row therein. In this state, a gear 8 is rotated by a driving device 10 and the supports 4 are rotated in proper velocity and also the inside of the reaction chamber 1 is exhausted. Simultaneously the inside of the chamber 1 is adjusted in the prescribed pressure by introducing gaseous raw material via a gas introduction port 3. Then high-frequency electric power is impressed on the electrode 11 from a high-frequency electric power source 15 via a matching box 14 and plasma is caused between the electrodes 11, 12 and the supports 4, and the thin films are formed on the supports 4. Thereby the floating of powder is prevented and the high-quality thin films are formed and also the maintenance of the apparatus is made easy.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Industrial Application Field 1] The present invention relates to a plasma-based film forming apparatus for forming FiJ marks on the surface of a support by plasma-treating a raw material gas by glow discharge. The present invention relates to a film forming apparatus suitable for forming a film on a support body of the type.

[Prior art] Plasma CVDI for forming a film semiconductor! In,
In the reaction chamber, the source gas is decomposed by glow discharge to generate plasma, and a film having a composition containing the constituent components of the source gas is formed on the support. Such film-forming technology is used in various fields such as solar cells, TFTs, COD, and image sensors, but usually, in order to form one film on a flat support, two flat supports are used. Electrodes are arranged in parallel, a support is attached to one electrode, and high frequency power or DC power is applied to the other electrode to generate plasma.

In this case, in order to prevent dust from adhering to the support and causing pinholes, etc., the 74 holes are placed vertically opposite each other, and the upper 1! Supports are attached to the poles.

By the way, when the support is cylindrical or cylindrical, it is required to form a film on a curved surface. For example, when forming a photoconductive layer for an electrophotographic photoreceptor, it is necessary to form an amorphous silicon layer on a cylindrical conductive support made of AI.
In addition, the surface of parts where the carriage moves at high speed, such as the guide rod of a printer, TiN, TiC, SiO2, etc.
, sac, seN, or 8N to improve its wear resistance, it is necessary to form a film of SiC or the like on the surface of the cylindrical cast iron rod.

When forming a thin film on the surface of such a cylindrical or cylindrical support, place the support at the center of the flat electrode, rotate the support around its central axis, and apply it to its circumferential surface. It is necessary to grow the glaze uniformly.

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] However, when a drive device for rotating the support is installed in the conventional plasma CVD 1l, the following problems occur. In other words, the operation of this drive device causes dust in the reaction chamber to fly up, deteriorating the quality of the thin film formed on the surface of the support. In particular, when forming films of amorphous silicon (S i ), silicon nitride (SiN), silicon oxide (S + O), silicon carbide (SiC), etc., a raw material gas such as SiH + gas is used, so plasma polymerization is required. powder is likely to be generated, and this powder is likely to float in the reaction chamber due to the operation of the drive device.

In addition, in order to increase productivity, if multiple supports are installed in the reaction chamber and films are formed on them at the same time, the drive device for the supports becomes complicated, and when powder adheres to the drive device, Extremely difficult to clean.

This invention was made in view of the circumstances, and
It is possible to form films on multiple supports at the same time, which increases productivity, and prevents the powder from rising, resulting in high quality il! I
An object of the present invention is to provide a plasma forming II apparatus which can form a film and which is easy to maintain.

[Means for Solving the Problems] The plasma formation II apparatus according to the present invention includes a reaction chamber that can be maintained under reduced pressure, a suspension means for suspending a plurality of supports disposed in the reaction chamber, It is characterized by having a driving means for moving the surface of the support body suspended by the suspension means, and a plasma forming means for generating plasma in the reaction chamber.

[Action 1 The plurality of supports in the reaction chamber are suspended by a suspension means installed above the supports, and are disposed within the reaction chamber, and are similarly supported by a drive means installed above the supports. The surface of the body moves. In this way, while the support surface is moving, the raw material gas is introduced into the reaction chamber, plasma is generated, and 1ill having a composition containing the constituent elements of the raw material gas is formed on the surface of the support. Since the surface of the support is moved by this driving means, a uniform thin film is formed. In addition, since the support is suspended and the driving means is installed above the support, even if powder is generated in the reaction chamber, this powder will not be blown up by the driving means, and high-quality thin film 111 can be produced. can be stably formed into a film.

Further, since a plurality of supports can be formed into films at the same time, productivity is high, and since the driving means is easy to clean, maintainability is high.

[Embodiments] Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings. FIG. 1 shows the configuration according to the first embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 2 is a side sectional view of the I device, and FIG. 2 is a plan sectional view thereof as well. A reaction chamber 1 having a rectangular cylindrical planar cross section is grounded, and is evacuated through an exhaust port 2 by a mechanical booster pump, an oil rotary pump (not shown), etc., and is approximately 10"
It is designed to maintain a vacuum level of 3 Torr. Various raw material gases are introduced into the reaction chamber 1 through a gas inlet 3 . The inside of the reaction chamber 1 is divided into an upper part and a lower part by a support member 5 of a suspension means, and a plurality of cylindrical supports 4 to be deposited are suspended by this support member 5. That is, a plurality of support rods 6 are inserted through the support member 5 with their longitudinal direction being vertical. A collar 7 is fitted onto each rod 6 and fixed to the rod 6, and by locking the collar 7 to the support member 5, the rod 6 is prevented from falling. A gear 8 of the driving means is fitted to the upper end of the rod.
The gear 8 is supported by the rod 6 by a presser foot 9 that is fitted and fixed to the rod 6 below. Adjacent gears 8 are in mesh with each other, and when the central gear is rotationally driven by the drive device, all the gears 8 rotate and the support rod 6 rotates.

A female thread (not shown) is formed at the lower end of the support rod 6, and a male thread (not shown) is formed at the upper end of the support 4. The support body 4 is attached to the rod 6 by screwing them together. Then, when the gear 8 is rotated by the drive of the drive device 10,
The support 4 rotates around its axis.

As shown in FIG. 2, the supports 4 are arranged in a line in the reaction chamber 1 substantially at the center thereof.

Then, on both sides of this support row,
A pair of flat electrodes 11 and 12 are provided opposite each other. The reactor 12 is grounded like the reaction chamber 1. On the other hand, electrode 1
1 is attached to the reaction chamber 1 via an insulator 13. This electrode 11 is connected to a high frequency N source 15 via a matching box 14.

Next, the operation of the apparatus constructed in this way will be explained. First, after attaching a plurality of supports 4 in the reaction chamber 1, the supports 4 are rotated on their own axis through an appropriate gap by the drive 11210, and the inside of the reaction chamber 1 is evacuated to about 10-'' torr. While continuing the evacuation, raw material gas is introduced through the gas inlet 3 and the pressure inside the reaction chamber 1 is adjusted to, for example, 0.1 Torr to 10 Torr. High-frequency power is applied to the electrode 11 from 111 to 12. Then, plasma is generated between llf!''+1, the electrode 12, and the support 4, and the 111-form thin film containing the main constituent elements in the source gas is supported. Formed on the body.

In this case, since the support is rotating, the thin film is uniformly formed on the circumferential surface of the support. In addition, since the driving means (driving device, gear, etc.) for rotationally driving the support is arranged above the support, it is inside the reaction chamber. 5) Even if powder is generated, the powder does not accumulate on the driving means, preventing the powder from being rolled up, and making it easy to clean the driving means.

1', Oh, the film to be formed is amorphous 5i1SiC
Or in the case of SiN etc., the support is heated to 150 to 300°C.
In the case of TiC or TiN, the support is preferably heated to 300 to 650°C. For this reason, a lamp heater (not shown) may be provided in the reaction chamber 1 to heat the support, or a lamp heater (not shown) may be provided in the reaction chamber 1.
2 gas or Ar gas may be introduced and the support may be heated by the plasma of this gas. In addition, in the above embodiment, a high frequency power source was used for plasma formation.
DC'1! A plasma may be generated using a source.

In this case, a matching box is not necessary. Furthermore, in this embodiment, the electrode 11 is used for power application and plasma is generated between the ground electrode 1flt12, but the electrode 11 and the support 4 can be connected even if this ground electrode is not specially provided. It is sufficient to generate a glow discharge during this period. Furthermore, it is also possible to arrange a plurality of supports in a plurality of rows.

Next, a second embodiment of the invention will be described. In this embodiment, by arranging a plurality of supports along the circumference, the film formation rate on each support is made uniform. FIG. 3 is a side sectional view of a film forming apparatus according to the second embodiment, and FIG. 4 is a plan sectional view thereof. The reaction chamber 21 has a cylindrical shape and is partitioned into an upper part and a lower part by a disc-shaped support member 25. In the lower part of the reaction chamber 1, a cylindrical grounding rod 32, a plurality of supports 24, and cylindrical electrodes 31 with eight circumferences and eleven circumferences are arranged. The ground 'R' pole 32 is disposed at the center of the reaction 'ff 121 and is suspended from the support member 25. ? ! ! Are several supports 24 grounded? ! It is disposed along the circumference coaxial with the pole 32 and suspended from the support member 25 via the support rod 26 . The high frequency 'R' pole 31 is disposed coaxially with the ground electric field 32 and is attached to the reaction chamber 21 via an insulator 33.

The high frequency power supply 35 is connected to the high frequency power supply 1f+31 via the matching box 34.

A gear 28 is provided in the upper part of the reaction chamber 21 for each support 24 and one ground pole 32, and a drive device 30
When these gears 28 are rotationally driven, each support 32 and the ground 1! The pole 32 is adapted to rotate.

The inside of the reaction chamber 21 is exhausted through an exhaust port 22, and the raw material gas is introduced into the reaction chamber 21 through a gas inlet 23 installed through the peripheral wall of the reaction chamber 21 and an insulator 33.
21.

Also in the film forming apparatus configured in this manner, a thin film is formed on the support under the same conditions as in the first embodiment. Drive I
Jlil! 30 causes each support body 24 and ground electrode 32 to rotate through the gear 28, and after adjusting the reaction pressure to 0.1 to 10 Torr, high frequency power is applied to the electrode 31. Then, plasma is generated during the reaction, and a thin film is formed on the peripheral surface of the support 24.

In this case, each support 24 is arranged between electrodes 31, 32 with the same geometrical conditions.

Therefore, all supports are deposited at the same deposition rate.

Also, since each support is rotating, 7iIllI! is uniformly formed on the circumferential surface of the support.

Note that it is also possible to omit the grounded N pole 32 in this embodiment. Although the grounding bridge 32 has a function of regulating the discharge space, this grounding electrode is not necessarily required as in the first embodiment. Instead of this ground electrode, a plurality of supports may be arranged along the circumference. That is, it is also possible to arrange the supports along a plurality of concentric circumferences.

[Effects of the Invention] According to the present invention, since the plurality of supports are suspended, the driving means thereof is disposed above the supports. Therefore, it reacts by the operation of the driving means! It is possible to prevent dust or reaction by-products from rising straight up, and to form a high quality plate without defects such as pinholes. Furthermore, the -1 organisms are prevented from adhering to the driving means, and the by-products are deposited at the bottom of the reaction chamber, making it easy to clean the apparatus. In particular, by arranging the supports along the circumference, it is possible to make the film formation rate of each support the same and to form a more homogeneous thin film. By the way, when 20 supports were arranged on the circumference to form a film, a thin film with the same thickness and quality was formed on all the supports, and the film was formed in the same lot by one film-forming operation. The plurality of thin films within are homogeneous.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

1 is a side sectional view of a film forming apparatus according to a first embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a sectional plan view thereof, and FIG. 3 is a side sectional view of a film forming apparatus according to a second embodiment of the present invention. Side sectional view, 4th
The figure is also a plan sectional view thereof. 1.21: reaction chamber, 4.24: support, 6.26: C
llrad 8.28: Gear, 10, 30: Drive device, 11
．． 12.31.32; Electrode, 13° 33: Insulator, 14
, 34: Matching box, 15.35: High frequency power supply.

Claims (3)

[Claims] (1) A reaction chamber that can be maintained under reduced pressure, a suspension means for suspending a plurality of supports disposed in the reaction chamber, a drive means for moving the surface of the supports suspended on the suspension means, 1. A film forming apparatus using plasma, comprising a plasma forming means for generating plasma indoors. (2) The plasma film forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the suspension means arranges the supports on the same circumference. (3) The plasma film forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the support is rod-shaped or cylindrical, and the moving means rotates the support.