KR100804700B1 - Evaporating apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

A deposition apparatus is provided to minimize a position difference of an evaporation source caused by a plurality of crucible structure by performing a deposition process after crucibles are sequentially positioned in a fixed heater. A substrate mounting part(300) is disposed in the upper portion of the inside of a deposition chamber(200). A heater(10) heats a supplied crucible(20) to evaporate a deposition material, fixed to a lower portion of the inner center of the deposition chamber. A plurality of crucibles are circumferentially disposed under the heater. A crucible rotating apparatus(30) sequentially rotates the crucibles on the circumference and sequentially positions the crucibles in a position corresponding to the heater. A crucible supply apparatus(40) supplies one crucible corresponding to the heater to the inside of the heater. The deposition material can be made of one material selected from a group of metal, an organic material and an inorganic material.

Description

Vapor Deposition Apparatus {EVAPORATING APPARATUS}

1 is a view schematically showing a deposition apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a schematic view of the evaporation source in FIG. 1.

3 is a schematic plan view of the evaporation source in FIG.

The present invention relates to a deposition apparatus, and more particularly, a plurality of crucibles may be sequentially supplied to one heater to reduce the thickness variation of the deposited film and to maximize the use efficiency of the deposition apparatus. For the device.

Recently, various flat panel displays have been developed to reduce weight and volume, which are disadvantages of cathode ray tubes. Such flat panel displays include Liquid Crystal Display (LCD), Field Emission Display (FED), Plasma Display Panel (PDP) and Organic Light Emitting Display (Organic Light Emitting Display). ).

Among these, the organic light emitting display device uses an phenomenon in which electrons and holes injected through a cathode and an anode are recombined to form an exciton in an organic thin film, and light of a specific wavelength is generated by energy from the formed exciton. It is a self-luminous display device. Such an organic light emitting display device can be driven at low voltage, has a light weight, is thin, has a wide viewing angle, and has a fast response speed.

The organic light emitting diode of the organic light emitting display device is called an organic light emitting diode (LED) because of its diode characteristics, and includes an anode electrode, an organic layer, and a cathode electrode which are stacked on a substrate.

The organic layer includes an organic emission layer (EML), in which holes and electrons recombine to form excitons and light is generated.

In order to increase the light emission efficiency, holes and electrons must be more smoothly transported to the organic light emitting layer. To this end, an Electron Transport Layer (ETL) may be disposed between the cathode electrode and the organic light emitting layer, and a Hole Transport Layer (HTL) may be disposed between the anode electrode and the organic light emitting layer, and the anode electrode and A hole injection layer (HIL) may be disposed between the hole transport layer, and an electron injection layer (EIL) may be disposed between the cathode electrode and the electron transport layer.

Typical methods for forming a thin film on a substrate include physical vapor deposition (PVD), such as vacuum evaporation, ion plating, and sputtering, and chemical vapor deposition by gas reaction. Law).

Among these, the vacuum vapor deposition method is mainly used for formation of the thin film layer containing the organic film of an organic light emitting element.

In a general deposition apparatus for depositing an organic film using a vacuum deposition method, a substrate is mounted on an upper portion of the deposition chamber, and an evaporation source is disposed below the deposition chamber.

The evaporation source includes a crucible containing a deposition material, and a heater is installed outside the crucible to serve as a heat source for evaporating the deposition material.

When the heating wire is operated, the crucible and the deposition material in the crucible are heated, and the evaporated deposition material is deposited on a substrate mounted on the inner top of the chamber to form a thin film on the substrate.

However, the existing crucible has a small amount of deposited material, which is difficult to apply to mass production of a large amount, and thus a method of using a revolver type evaporation source equipped with a plurality of crucibles has been proposed.

However, even when using such a revolver type evaporation source, a heater and a temperature sensor are required for a plurality of crucibles, thereby increasing the installation cost.

In addition, a positional tolerance of the evaporation source occurs due to the rotation of the crucible, which causes a large variation in thickness when the deposition material is deposited on the substrate.

The present invention, in order to solve the problems of the prior art as described above, by supplying a plurality of crucibles in sequence to one heater to reduce the thickness variation of the deposited film, reduce the installation cost of the deposition apparatus, can maximize the use efficiency Provided is a deposition apparatus.

The deposition apparatus according to the present invention includes a heater for evaporating a deposition material by heating a deposition chamber, a substrate mounting unit disposed on an inner upper portion of the deposition chamber, a crucible fixedly disposed and supplied below an inner center of the deposition chamber, and the heater. A plurality of crucibles arranged circumferentially in the lower portion and sequentially located in the heater.

In this case, the crucible may further include a crucible rotating device that sequentially rotates the crucible on the circumference to sequentially position the crucible at a position corresponding to the heater, and raises a crucible positioned to correspond to the heater among the plurality of sequentially rotated crucibles. It may further include a crucible supply device for supplying the inside of the heater.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION Hereinafter, exemplary embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings so that those skilled in the art may easily implement the present invention. However, the present invention may be embodied in many different forms. And it is not limited to the embodiments described herein.

1 is a view schematically showing a deposition apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 2 is a schematic view of an evaporation source in FIG. 3 is a schematic plan view of the evaporation source in FIG.

The deposition apparatus 1000 according to the present exemplary embodiment includes an evaporation source 100, a deposition chamber 200, and a substrate mounting part including a heater 10, a crucible 20, a crucible rotating device 30, and a crucible supply device 40. And 300.

The heater 10 is fixedly disposed below the inner center of the deposition chamber 200, and heats the supplied crucible 20 to evaporate the deposition material. The heater 10 may use a heating wire, for example a helical coil, as a heating means. In order to improve the efficiency of the heat supplied to the crucible 20 by the heater 10, the evaporation source 100 may further include a heat insulating material (not shown).

In this embodiment, since the deposition process is performed by sequentially placing the crucible 20 on the fixed heater 10, the position tolerance of the evaporation source due to the plurality of crucible structures can be minimized. In addition, since only one fixed heater 10 is provided on the top of the crucible without having each heater and a temperature sensor for each of the plurality of crucibles 20, the installation cost is significantly reduced.

As the deposition material, any one material selected from the group consisting of metals, organics, and inorganics may be used. Therefore, the organic material or the inorganic material can be used to form the organic film layer or the inorganic film layer constituting the organic electroluminescent device. In addition, a metal may be used as the deposition material to form electrodes such as an anode electrode and a cathode electrode of the organic EL device.

The crucible 20 is arranged in a plurality of circumferentially below the heater 10 fixed in the deposition chamber 200. In FIG. 1, the crucible 20a supplied to the heater appears to be at the lower center of the deposition chamber. Referring to FIG. 3, the crucible 20a supplied to the heater is circumferential rather than the lower center of the deposition chamber 200. You can see that it is located in.

It is also sequentially rotated on the circumference and sequentially positioned to correspond to the heater 10.

In the present embodiment, since each crucible 20 is not provided with a heater and a temperature sensor, since the space occupied by one crucible 20 is reduced, more crucibles 20 are installed on the circumference, so that the deposition chamber 200 is provided. It is possible to significantly increase the economic efficiency since the deposition can be performed without releasing the vacuum state of the battery for a long time.

The crucible 20 may be formed of a non-metallic material such that a space is formed therein to melt the metal, the organic material, and the inorganic material. More specifically, graphite, SiO ₂ , BN and the like can be used. An opening is formed in an upper surface of the crucible 20 so that the deposition material is evaporated and sprayed onto the substrate 310 through the nozzle unit 25.

The crucible 20 is rotated to the position corresponding to the heater 10 sequentially on the circumference by the crucible rotating device 30. At this time, the crucible 20a supplied to the heater is positioned at a position corresponding to the heater 10 by an alignment device (not shown) and a precision motor (not shown).

The crucible 20a accurately positioned at the position corresponding to the heater is lifted by the crucible supply device 40 and positioned inside the heater 10. At this time, the alignment device (not shown) is aligned to a specific position inside the heater 10. Therefore, since the positional tolerance of the evaporation source 100 according to the plurality of crucible structures is minimized, variation in the film thickness formed by evaporation of the evaporation material of each crucible 10 may be minimized.

The deposition chamber 200 is configured to maintain a vacuum inside the vacuum pump (not shown). As described above, in the present embodiment, since the number of crucibles that can be added can be further increased, it is economical because deposition can be performed without releasing vacuum for a long time.

In addition, a substrate mounting unit 300 for mounting the substrate 310 is installed in the upper portion of the deposition chamber 100.

In addition, the evaporation source 100 may be installed in a state of being offset by a predetermined distance from the center of the substrate 310 in consideration of the deposition characteristics of the evaporated material, and in order to improve film thickness uniformity, 310 may be rotated at a constant rotational speed by the motor (M).

Although not shown, a film forming mask formed in a predetermined pattern may be disposed below the substrate 310, and an organic material that is evaporated from the evaporation source 100 and deposited on the substrate 310 inside the deposition chamber 200. A film thickness sensor 320 may be installed to detect a film thickness of the film.

Although the preferred embodiments of the present invention have been described above, the present invention is not limited thereto, and various modifications and changes can be made within the scope of the claims and the detailed description of the invention and the accompanying drawings. Naturally, it belongs to the range of.

Since the present invention performs the deposition process by sequentially placing the crucible on the fixed heater, it is possible to minimize the variation in film thickness between the crucibles by minimizing the position tolerance of the evaporation source due to the plurality of crucible structures.

In addition, since the present invention includes only one heater and a temperature sensor without each heater and a temperature sensor for each crucible, it is possible to reduce the installation cost and increase the number of crucibles that can be added.

In addition, the present invention is economically remarkable because the number of crucibles to be added can be increased to maintain the vacuum chamber for a long time.

Claims (4)

Deposition chamber, A substrate mounting part disposed on an inner upper portion of the deposition chamber; A heater fixedly disposed below an inner center of the deposition chamber and heating the supplied crucible to evaporate the deposition material; A plurality of crucibles arranged circumferentially under the heater, A crucible rotating device for sequentially rotating the crucible on the circumference to sequentially position the crucible at a position corresponding to the heater; And And a crucible supply device for supplying one crucible positioned corresponding to the heater among the plurality of crucibles into the heater. delete delete According to claim 1, The deposition material is a deposition apparatus consisting of any one material selected from the group consisting of metals, organics and inorganics.

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