KR100600879B1 - Multi Chamber Thermal Evaporation Apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to a multi-chamber vacuum deposition apparatus, in which a glass inverter is omitted in a multi-chamber vacuum evaporator having at least two transparent module (TM) chambers, resulting in misalignment in the glass inverter. Provided is a vacuum deposition apparatus that can prevent substrate breakage and reduce tact time.

In the vacuum deposition apparatus, the glass inverter located in the buffer chamber between the TM chamber and the TM chamber stops the substrate after the first rotation start at the aligner inside the chamber in the last process module of the first TM chamber. It can be omitted by further rotating with a 180 ° phase difference in the state.

Multi Chamber Vacuum Deposition Device, Glass Inverter, Aligner

Description

Multi Chamber Thermal Evaporation Apparatus

1 is a schematic view showing a rotation method for substrate alignment in a glass inverter according to a conventional multi-chamber vacuum deposition apparatus for manufacturing an organic light emitting display device.

2 is a schematic diagram illustrating a rotation method for substrate alignment in a multi-chamber vacuum deposition apparatus according to the present invention.

3A and 3B are schematic views comparing a groove of a substrate after the rotation of the multi-chamber vacuum deposition apparatus of the prior art and the present invention.

<Description of Symbols for Major Parts of Drawings>

10: Transparent Module Chamber 1 (TM1)

20: process chamber A 30: substrate

40: process chamber B 50a, 50b, 50c: buffer chamber

60: glass inverter

70: Transparent Module Chamber 2 (TM2)

80: process chamber C 90: process chamber D

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a vacuum deposition apparatus having a multi chamber, wherein a glass inverter is omitted in a multi chamber vacuum evaporator having at least two transparent modules (TM). Accordingly, the present invention provides a vacuum deposition apparatus that can prevent substrate breakage caused by miss-aligner in the glass inverter and reduce tac time. The glass inverter located in the buffer chamber between the TM chamber and the TM chamber in the vacuum deposition apparatus is an aligner inside the chamber in the last process module of the first TM chamber. ), It can be omitted by further rotating the substrate 180 degrees out of the stopped state after the initial rotation start.

In general, the thin film deposition method is largely divided into physical vapor deposition (PVD) and chemical vapor deposition (CVD). The PVD method is a method of forming a thin film by transporting a solid target containing constituent atoms of a desired thin film into an atom, molecule, or cluster state by physical action (evaporation, sublimation, sputtering) to a substrate surface. On the other hand, the CVD method is a method of forming a thin film by supplying a raw material gas containing constituent atoms of a thin film to a space in which a substrate is placed and by chemical reaction on the gas phase and the surface of the substrate through excitation and decomposition of the raw material gas molecules.

In general, a vacuum deposition apparatus used in a liquid crystal display device production line generally improves productivity by using a multi-chamber having two or more process chambers. The chamber includes a loading chamber, a pretreatment chamber, an organic film deposition chamber, a metal deposition chamber, and an unloading chamber.

In general, among flat panel display devices, an organic electroluminescence display device (OLED) is self-luminous, has a wide viewing angle, fast response speed, thin thickness, low manufacturing cost, and high contrast. It is attracting attention as a next generation flat panel display device by exhibiting such characteristics.

In general, an organic light emitting display device includes an organic light emitting layer between an anode electrode and a cathode electrode, so that holes supplied from the anode electrode and electrons received from the cathode electrode combine in the organic light emitting layer to form an exciton, which is a hole-electron pair, and again. The excitons are emitted by the energy generated by returning to the ground state.

The organic light emitting diode includes a plurality of layers such as a semiconductor layer, an insulating film, an organic film layer, a gate electrode, a source / drain electrode, a metal layer such as a first electrode, a second electrode, and the like. Vacuum deposition may be used for the deposition of the plurality of layers, and the organic light emitting layer may be damaged by damaging the substrate by generating an abnormal current in the light emitting layer when the organic light emitting display device is operated when misalignment of the substrate occurs in the deposition process. Damage can be given to lower contrast and brightness. For this reason, a vacuum deposition apparatus is required for the deposition of the light emitting layer that requires fine alignment.

Hereinafter, the prior art will be described with reference to the drawings.

1 is a schematic diagram illustrating a rotation method for substrate alignment in a glass inverter according to a conventional multi-chamber vacuum deposition apparatus.

Referring to FIG. 1, a conventional multi-chamber vacuum evaporator connects two or more TMs such as at least transparent module 1 (TM1) and transparent module 2 (TM2) 70 to proceed with logistics. do. At least two process chambers A, B (20, 40) or process chambers C, D (80, 90) are attached to each of the TM (10) (70). The process chambers A, B, C, or D (20, 40, 80, 90) are deposition chambers capable of depositing an organic film and a metal film, and may each independently process. Buffer chambers (50a, 50b, 50c) are located between the TM1 (10) and TM2 (70), a glass inverter (180) for rotating the substrate 180 ° in the buffer chamber (50b) 60) is located.

As shown in FIG. 1, the substrate 30 must be inverted by 180 ° in the buffer chamber 50b so that the initial setting and orientation of the substrate 30 in the TM2 70 module is in the process chamber A 20 of the TM1 10. It becomes constant like this.

That is, the glass inverter 60 aligns the substrate 30 from the last process chamber B 40 of the TM1 10 so that the initial setting and the orientation are the same, and then the next process chamber of the TM2 70. For moving to C (80), a glass aligner (60) is provided with one aligner (aligner) and is used as an aligner chamber (aligner chamber).

In the conventional multi-chamber vacuum deposition apparatus, the substrate 30 is processed in the process chamber A 20 of the TM1 10, and then moves to the process chamber B 40 to perform the process. At this time, the direction of the substrate exiting the process chamber B 40 is 180 ° out of phase with the initial setting and direction.

At this time, the glass inverter is necessary to have the initial setting and direction for the alignment in the process chamber C 80 of the TM2.

Subsequently, the substrate 30 is moved to the buffer chamber 50a in order to move to the TM2 70, and the process of the substrate 30 is performed in accordance with a predetermined program in the process chamber C 80 of the TM2 70. 180 ° rotation was made in the glass inverter 60 to align. The substrate 30 rotated by the glass inverter 60 was moved to the buffer chamber 50c again and moved to the process chamber C 80 of the TM2 70 to perform the process.

At this time, when passing through the glass inverter 60 between the TM1 (10) and the TM2 (70), the tact time is short 3 minutes to 4 minutes, long 5 minutes to 10 minutes to improve productivity It has the problem of deterioration.

The alignment of the substrate is just before the substrate 30 is processed in the process chamber C 80 of the TM2 70 after the process treatment in the process chamber B 40 of the TM1 10. In a conventional multi-chamber vacuum deposition apparatus, the alignment of the substrate 30 is likely to be misaligned during the process from the glass inverter 60 to the transfer to the process chamber C 80 after the substrate alignment. In particular, organic light emitting diodes are deposited using a fine metal mask to realize various colors of R (red), G (green), and B (blue). -There is a high possibility of alignment. As a result, when the glass inverter 60 aligns, an error occurs in the alignment as the substrate is distorted, and a misalignment occurs, thereby causing a breakage of the substrate. While the substrate is being processed, the process is held (Holding) has a problem of low productivity.

The technical problem to be solved by the present invention is to solve the above-mentioned problems of the prior art, and in the multi-chamber vacuum deposition apparatus having at least two TMs, the first rotation start of the substrate in the aligner inside the vacuum chamber ( Multi-chamber vacuum deposition apparatus that can improve productivity by preventing substrate breakage and process delay due to miss-alignment in the glass inverter by further rotating by 180 ° phase difference in the stopped state after start) To provide.

In order to solve the above-mentioned conventional problems, the present invention provides a method in which the substrate is stopped after an initial rotation start in the aligner inside the chamber in the last process module of TM1 in the multi-chamber vacuum deposition apparatus. By further rotating the phase difference, it provides a multi-chamber vacuum deposition apparatus capable of proceeding immediately in a subsequent TM2 chamber without going through a glass inverter.

Hereinafter, the present invention will be described in more detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

2 is a schematic view showing a rotation method for substrate alignment in a multi-chamber vacuum deposition apparatus according to the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 2, a multi-chamber vacuum deposition apparatus constitutes a TM1 10 and a TM2 70 having at least two or more. The TM1 10 includes at least two process chambers A 20 and process chambers B 40 capable of performing respective independent processes. The process chambers A and B 20 and 40 may be organic film deposition chambers and metal deposition chambers.

In general, the configuration of a vacuum chamber in which multilayer thin films are deposited basically requires an evaporation source, a thickness monitor, an aligner of a glass substrate and a mask, and the like. At this time, each deposition process chamber has an independent mask and mask alignment device, and the alignment process of the substrate and the mask is repeated every time before the deposition process.

The order of the alignment is briefly described as follows.

The substrate is loaded onto the substrate holder. At this time, a magnet array device is used so that the mask is attached without sagging. In addition, there is a table that constitutes a vacuum chuck that can rotate and move up and down by adsorbing and holding a substrate. Two transmissive sensors are disposed on both sides of the vacuum chuck. When the pin is aligned, the fixing device of the substrate is operated after the reference point is coincided, the lifting device of the magnetic plate is lowered, and when the magnetic force of the magnetic plate passes through the substrate, the mask is uniformly approached to the substrate. Subsequently, the adsorbed and held substrate aligns the substrate to a predetermined position by a drive mechanism between the signal from the transmission sensor and the above-described table.

Alignment of the substrate is performed by detecting how much the rotational axis of the substrate holder is displaced from the rotational center of the substrate and the center of the substrate, and driving the X-direction moving mechanism and the Y-direction moving mechanism so that the center of the substrate coincides with the rotational center. The X direction movement mechanism and the Y direction movement mechanism are driven by using a CCD (Charge Coupled Device Sensor).

In the case of using the CCD sensor, two CCD sensors are arranged on both sides so as to capture an image of a specific area of the peripheral edge of the substrate. The CCD sensor is fixed and the substrate is rotated by a table. The control unit controls the X direction movement mechanism and the Y direction movement mechanism in accordance with the signal from the CCD sensor. After the alignment the vacuum chuck is lowered. Then, after checking whether the mask is raised, release the clamp. The holder of the substrate is reversed and deposition begins. At this time, it is possible to form a thin film by minimizing the number of mask alignment.

Subsequently, one buffer chamber 50 is formed between the TM1 10 and the TM2 70. The buffer chamber 50 is a chamber that waits for the substrate after the process is completed in the process chamber B 40 of the TM1 10 and before the substrate is transferred to the process chamber C 80 of the TM2 70.

That is, the substrate, which has been processed in the process chamber A 20 of the TM1 10, moves to the buffer chamber 50 through a transfer means such as a robot arm, and then moves to the process chamber B 40 again. Proceed with subsequent process. The process chamber B 40 attached to the vacuum deposition apparatus has a 180 ° phase difference at a stop state after programmatic initial rotation start of the substrate 30 at the aligner which is a rotational rotation part of the deposition apparatus. Rotate further to stop. The 180 ° rotation takes 10 seconds. In this case, as shown in FIG. 2, the initial setting and direction of the substrate 30 coincide with the process chamber A 20 of the TM 1 so that the buffer chamber is located between the TM 1 10 and the TM 2 70 through a conveying means. Go to 50.

Subsequently, the substrate 30 moves to the process chamber C 80 of the TM2 70 through the conveying means, and since the substrate 30 is the same as the initial setting and the direction of the substrate, the substrate 30 does not need to be reversed 180 degrees and immediately proceeds to the subsequent process. Like this, the vacuum evaporator aligns without aligning through the glass inverter, so there is less possibility of misalignment. Therefore, the organic light emitting device which requires a minute process by using a fine metal mask is required. It is more advantageous for forming an organic light emitting layer.

In the last process module process chamber B 40 of the TM1 (10), when the evaporator rotation rotation part, that is, stops after further rotation by 180 ° phase difference in the stop state after the initial rotation start programmatically in the aligner, FIG. As in the glass inverter in the buffer chamber between TM1 and TM2, 180 ° inversion is unnecessary.

In addition, when the substrate is further rotated 180 degrees out of phase in the last process module chamber B 40 of the TM1 10, the substrate is oriented as shown in FIG. 2, so that the glass inverter may be omitted, thereby causing a tact time. ) Can be reduced by 5 to 10 minutes.

Subsequently, the substrate from the process chamber C 80 is transferred to the process chamber D 90 to proceed to the subsequent process.

3A and 3B are schematic views comparing the grooves of the substrate after the rotation of the multi-chamber vacuum deposition apparatus of the prior art and the present invention.

Figure 3a shows the groove of the substrate at the stop after initial rotation in the last process module chamber B of TM1 according to the prior art, Figure 3b shows 180 ° in the stop state after the first rotation in the last process module chamber B of TM1 according to the inventionMore By rotating, it can be confirmed that the groove of the substrate has a 180 ° phase difference compared with that of FIG. 3A.

As described above, the present invention further rotates the substrate 180 ° out of phase with the substrate in the aligner inside the chamber at the last process module of TM1 in a multi-chamber vacuum deposition apparatus having at least two TMs and then stopped after initial rotation start. By reducing the number of mask alignment, and by eliminating the glass inverter, the transfer time of the substrate between the chambers can be increased to cm / sec to realize a quick tack time of less than 3 minutes and to reduce the production cost.

In addition, productivity can be improved by preventing substrate breakage and process delay due to misalignment in the glass inverter.

Claims (6)

In a multi-chamber vacuum deposition apparatus having a plurality of process chambers, the aligner of the process chamber is rotated 180 ° further from the stop state after the initial rotation start so that the rotation of the substrate in the aligner of the process chamber has a 180 ° phase difference. Multi-chamber vacuum deposition apparatus for controlling. The method of claim 1, The multi-chamber vacuum deposition apparatus does not include a glass inverter. The method of claim 1, The multi-chamber vacuum deposition apparatus has at least two transparent modules (TM). The method of claim 1, And the multi-chamber vacuum deposition apparatus is equipped with one buffer chamber. The method of claim 1, The multi-chamber vacuum deposition apparatus has an aligner independently for each chamber. The method of claim 1, The multi-chamber vacuum deposition apparatus is a multi-chamber vacuum deposition apparatus, characterized in that for manufacturing an organic light emitting device.

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