KR101252987B1 - multiple evaporation system sharing an evaporator - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to the construction of an inline deposition system for fabricating an organic light emitting device, and particularly to minimize deposition idle time occurring during FMM replacement and alignment in an inline deposition system for manufacturing a large-area full-color display, in which expensive deposition raw materials are wasted. To prevent it. To this end, two deposition chambers are installed side by side with a partition wall interposed therebetween, and a predetermined passage is provided at the bottom of the partition wall to introduce a multiple deposition chamber in which an evaporation source can move between the two deposition chambers to form an inline deposition system. Accordingly, an inline deposition system configuration can be provided in which an evaporation source can be moved to another chamber of a multiple deposition chamber while an FMM replacement is performed in one chamber.

Description

Multiple evaporation system sharing an evaporator

The present invention relates to the construction of an inline deposition system for fabricating an organic light emitting device, and more particularly, to a process chamber and an evaporation source arrangement and driving design for reducing waste of materials.

In the process of fabricating an organic light emitting device, a vacuum heating deposition method is generally used to form an organic thin film and an electrode on a substrate. In the vacuum heating deposition method, an evaporation source containing an evaporation material source is placed in a vacuum chamber, and the evaporation material is deposited on a substrate in the same vacuum chamber by heating it. At this time, a mask having a predetermined pattern is attached to the deposition surface of the substrate, so that an organic thin film having a desired pattern can be deposited on the substrate. In the case of fabricating a white light device using an organic light emitting device, there is no need to form RGB pixels, and thus, an open mask is used to expose almost the entire substrate to the deposition material. In addition to the light emitting layer (EML) emitting light (EML), the organic light emitting device has an electron transport layer (ETL), a hole transport layer (HTL), a hole injection layer (HIL) and an electron injection It is manufactured in a structure of a multilayer thin film in which a common layer such as a layer (EIL, electron injection layer) is laminated. Among these, common layers other than the light emitting layer such as the electron transport layer, the hole transport layer, the hole injection layer, and the electron injection layer do not need special pattern formation, and thus use an open mask during deposition. Therefore, a single open mask is used as a prerequisite for the white light device fabrication process. When manufacturing a full-color display using an organic light emitting device, precise RGB pixel formation is required. Therefore, a FMM (Fine metal mask) is used, and RGB pixels are sequentially deposited using different FMMs for each of R, G, and B light emitting layers. . The process flow diagram for manufacturing such a full color organic light emitting display is shown in FIG. 1. In this case, the mask must be replaced, aligned, and attached with the mask required for the deposition layer before each deposition process. There is a disadvantage that the raw material of the deposition is wasted. This phenomenon can be seen in Republic of Korea Patent Publication No. 10-2002-0093742 (published December 16, 2002, application number 10-2002-0073208).

Therefore, an object of the present invention is to reduce the idle time of the deposition process generated during the mask replacement, alignment and attachment process in the organic light emitting device manufacturing process to prevent the waste of expensive deposition raw materials, and also to improve the substrate throughput per unit time Implement a deposition system configuration.

According to the present invention, a passage through which an evaporation source passes is formed at a lower end of a partition wall between the multiple deposition chambers and the multiple deposition chambers arranged in a horizontal direction, and having an evaporation source capable of moving between the two chambers through the passage, each chamber At the same time, the deposition process and the mask replacement process are performed at the same time.After the deposition process is completed in one chamber, the evaporation source is moved to the next chamber waiting for the mask replacement process to be completed to perform the deposition process, minimizing the idle time of the deposition process and depositing material To prevent waste.

Therefore, the present invention,
The deposition chamber for depositing the material on the substrate,
In order to have a large number of deposition spaces in the chamber,
The partition has an opening,
And a shared evaporation source movable through each opening of the partition wall to each deposition space separated by the partition wall.

While the evaporation source moved to one deposition space in the chamber performs the deposition process, another deposition space separated by the partition wall is characterized by preliminary deposition process or post-treatment process for the deposition process. It is possible to provide multiple deposition systems that share an evaporation source.

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In addition, the present invention, in the multiple deposition system,

A buffer chamber in front of the deposition chamber,

The first substrate on which the material is to be deposited is brought into the deposition space of the deposition chamber separated by the partition wall from the buffer chamber, the mask alignment is performed, and the evaporation source is the first substrate into which the first substrate is carried through the opening of the partition wall. While moving to a deposition space to perform material deposition, a second substrate is introduced from the buffer chamber into the second deposition space separated by the partition walls of the deposition chamber to perform mask alignment and to wait, thereby depositing the first substrate. After the completion, the evaporation source may move to the second deposition space to provide a multi-deposition system sharing the evaporation source, characterized in that the continuous process by depositing the material on the second substrate waiting.

In addition, the present invention is provided with a plurality of deposition chambers in series having deposition spaces separated by the partition wall, a gate valve is installed between the series adjacent adjacent deposition chambers, the substrate is carried in and out through the gate valve, Each deposition chamber in series adjacent includes a separate shared evaporation source such that the shared evaporation source is moved only through the openings of the partition walls of each deposition chamber and does not move beyond the gate valve. Can be provided.

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In addition, the present invention, in the multiple deposition system, the deposition chamber is provided with a transfer line, it is possible to provide a multiple deposition system sharing the evaporation source, characterized in that the evaporation source is moved.

The present invention comprises a plurality of deposition chambers, the lower ends of the two deposition chambers are formed so that the evaporation source can pass through, and install an evaporation source that can move between the two deposition chambers, during the deposition process in one chamber In the other chamber, mask replacement, alignment, and attachment processes may be performed to minimize idle time between deposition processes and to minimize waste of deposition raw materials.

In addition, the present invention has the effect of improving the substrate throughput per unit time compared to a single inline deposition system.

1 is a schematic of an inline system with a conventional single deposition chamber.
2 is a schematic diagram of a multi-deposition method applied to an inline deposition system for depositing a large area organic light emitting device as an embodiment of the present invention.
3 is a cross-sectional schematic diagram of multiple deposition chambers constituting the multiple deposition system of the present invention.

Hereinafter, with reference to the accompanying drawings, a preferred embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail.

The present invention minimizes the idle time of the deposition process by applying a multi-deposition system in which the vacuum chamber for performing mask replacement and alignment and deposition in two lines in an inline deposition system for depositing a multilayer thin film in the organic light emitting device fabrication, It enables the efficient use of deposition raw materials. In particular, when the mask is frequently replaced, such as a large-area full-color display that can maximize the effect of the present invention, the amount of the deposition raw material usage is shown an embodiment of the present invention in FIG. Deposition chambers using the FMM and fixing the substrate in the same chamber after mask alignment, and scanning and depositing the evaporation source are from deposition # 1 chamber 101 to deposition # 6 chamber 106. Typical examples are R, G, and B light emitting layer deposition chambers. The deposition # 1 chamber 101 and the deposition # 2 chamber 102 are installed with the partitions interposed therebetween, and an opening is formed at the bottom of the partition walls between the two chambers so that a passage through which the evaporation source 200 in the lower part of the chamber can pass is provided. do. The bulkhead isolates the deposition space of each chamber. The evaporation source 200 is connected to a moving device (not shown), so that linear movement is possible and the structure can move between the deposition # 1 chamber 101 and the deposition # 2 chamber 102. Therefore, the deposition # 1 chamber 101 and the deposition # 2 chamber 102 share a single evaporation source, forming a multiple deposition chamber used for depositing the same thin film. The deposition # 1 chamber 101 is connected to the rear surface of the deposition # 3 chamber 103 via a gate valve, and the deposition # 4 chamber 104 is also connected to the rear surface of the deposition # 2 chamber 102 via a gate valve. 1, # 2 chamber (101, 102) and other types of evaporation source is shared, the deposition process for forming a stacked structure of the organic light emitting device is performed. The deposition # 3 chamber 103 and the deposition # 4 chamber 104 have a multiple deposition chamber structure, such as the deposition # 1 chamber 101 and the deposition # 2 chamber 102 pairs, with a passage through which an evaporation source can pass. It is separated by a partition. The deposition # 5 chamber 105 and the deposition # 6 chamber 106 also have a multiple deposition chamber structure as described above, and the deposition # 1 and # 2 chambers 101 and 102 pairs or the deposition # 3 and # 4 chambers. Only the evaporation sources for (103, 104) pairs and other membrane layers are provided. In the embodiment of FIG. 2, the series of deposition chambers 101, 103, 105 or 102, 104, 106 may sequentially perform the deposition process performed in the conventional inline deposition system, and the number of deposition chambers may be You can increase as many as you need. It is also possible to provide the same evaporation source in each multiple deposition chamber. 3 is a schematic cross-sectional view of a multiple deposition chamber. The evaporation source 200 at the bottom of the chamber is connected to the moving device through the passage at the bottom of the partition wall 150 to the chamber where the deposition process is to proceed, so that either the deposition # 1 chamber 101 or the deposition # 2 chamber 102 can be provided. It is possible to move. Substrate holders 160 and 170, which are attached to the substrate and attached to the deposition chamber, are positioned in each chamber, and the partition wall 150 separates the space where the deposition is performed.

The process of the deposition process in the present invention multiple deposition system is briefly described according to the system schematic of FIG. 2 as follows. When the first substrate is inserted into the substrate loading and chucking chamber 100, the substrate is attached to the substrate holder and transferred to the deposition # 1 chamber 101 through the buffer # 1 chamber 110, and the mask alignment and attachment are performed. When the mask is attached, the movable evaporation source 200 moves from the deposition # 1 101 and # 2 102 chambers to the deposition # 1 chamber 101 to proceed with deposition. In the deposition # 1 chamber 101, a second substrate is introduced into the deposition # 2 chamber 102 through the substrate loading and chucking chamber 100 and the buffer # 1 chamber 110 during the alignment and deposition process. The alignment and attachment will be completed and waiting. Meanwhile, when deposition is completed in the deposition # 1 chamber 101, the evaporation source 200 may move to the deposition # 2 chamber 102 to immediately proceed with the deposition process on the second substrate. The first substrate is transferred from the deposition # 1 chamber 101 to the deposition # 3 chamber 103, and mask replacement and alignment is performed for the next deposition process. After deposition of the second substrate is completed in the deposition # 2 chamber 102 while the mask replacement and alignment is in progress in the deposition # 3 chamber 103, the second substrate is transferred to the deposition # 4 chamber 104, where the mask replacement and alignment is performed. I will wait later. Therefore, there is no waiting time due to mask replacement and alignment between the first substrate deposition and the second substrate deposition, and the deposition is immediately performed in the deposition # 4 chamber 104 after the deposition in the deposition # 3 chamber 103 by a moving evaporation source. It is possible to start the continuous use of the evaporation source, the system configuration to minimize the waste of the deposition raw material. Only the substrate loading / chucking chamber is shown in the schematic diagram shown in FIG. 2 before the buffer # 1 chamber, but a common layer deposition chamber using an open mask may be constructed before the buffer # 1 chamber, which of course applies the basic concept of the present invention. One embodiment is that.

In addition, all the embodiments have been described using a dual deposition system as an example, triple, quadruple multiple structure can also be manufactured on the same principle, the structure of the partition wall 150 in the case of top-down deposition, the opening can be installed on the top, In addition, it may be formed at an appropriate height to move the evaporation source 200.

The configuration of the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiments, and it is obvious that various applications and modifications can be made by those skilled in the art.

100: substrate loading / chucking 110: buffer # 1 chamber
101: deposition # 1 chamber 102: deposition # 2 chamber
103: deposition # 3 chamber 104: deposition # 4 chamber
105: deposition # 5 chamber 106: deposition # 6 chamber
120: substrate unloading chamber 150: partition wall
200: evaporation source

Claims (4)

The deposition chamber for depositing the material on the substrate,
In order to have a large number of deposition spaces in the chamber,
The partition has an opening,
And a shared evaporation source movable through each opening of the partition wall to each deposition space separated by the partition wall.
While the evaporation source moved to one deposition space in the chamber performs the deposition process, another deposition space separated by the partition wall is characterized by preliminary deposition process or post-treatment process for the deposition process. Multiple deposition system sharing an evaporation source. The method of claim 1, further comprising a buffer chamber in front of the deposition chamber,
The first substrate on which the material is to be deposited is brought into the deposition space of the deposition chamber separated by the partition wall from the buffer chamber, the mask alignment is performed, and the evaporation source is the first substrate into which the first substrate is carried through the opening of the partition wall. While moving to a deposition space to perform material deposition, a second substrate is introduced from the buffer chamber into the second deposition space separated by the partition walls of the deposition chamber to perform mask alignment and to wait, thereby depositing the first substrate. After the completion, the evaporation source is moved to the second deposition space is a multiple deposition system sharing the evaporation source, characterized in that to proceed with the continuous process by depositing the material on the second substrate waiting. The method of claim 2, further comprising a plurality of deposition chambers in series having deposition spaces separated by the partition wall, a gate valve is installed between the adjacent adjacent deposition chambers, the substrate is carried in and out through the gate valve, Each deposition chamber in series adjacent includes a separate shared evaporation source such that the shared evaporation source is moved only through the openings of the partition walls of each deposition chamber and does not move beyond the gate valve. . The multiple deposition system of claim 1 or 3, wherein the deposition chamber includes a transfer line so that the evaporation source moves.

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