KR101514208B1 - Laser etching apparatus and method - Google Patents

Abstract

Disclosed is a laser etching apparatus and a method thereof. The laser etching apparatus according to one embodiment of the present invention, comprises: a vacuum chamber in which an etching process for a substrate chucked on an upper surface of a chucking module is prosecuted; a laser irradiator for irradiating a laser in order to etch organic matters deposited in an outer part of the substrate; and a rotary module body which is connected to the chucking module and rotates the chucking module by a predetermined angle to prevent an organic matter particle separated from the substrate during an etching process by the laser from being re-deposited on the substrate.

Description

[0001] The present invention relates to a laser etching apparatus and method,

The present invention relates to a laser etching apparatus and a method thereof, and more particularly, to an apparatus and method for efficiently removing organic substances deposited on an outer surface of a substrate using a laser, To a substrate, and to prevent a defective substrate from being produced again by being reabsorbed onto a substrate, and a method thereof.

As a result of the rapid development of information and communication technology and the expansion of the market, a flat panel display is attracting attention as a display device.

Such flat panel display devices include liquid crystal display devices, plasma display panels, and organic light emitting diodes.

Among these organic electroluminescent devices, for example, OLEDs have very good advantages such as high response speed, lower power consumption than conventional LCD, light weight, no need for a separate backlight device, And has been attracting attention as a next generation display device.

Such an organic electroluminescent device is a principle in which an anode film, an organic thin film, and a cathode film are sequentially formed on a substrate, and a voltage is applied between the anode and the cathode to form a proper energy difference in the organic thin film and emit light by itself.

In other words, the injected electrons and holes are recombined, and the excitation energy generated is generated by light. At this time, since the wavelength of light generated according to the amount of the dopant of the organic material can be controlled, full color can be realized.

1 is a structural view of an organic electroluminescent device (OLED).

As shown in this figure, an organic electroluminescent device includes an anode, a hole injection layer, a hole transfer layer, an emitting layer, a hole blocking layer, an electron injection layer, a cathode, and the like are stacked in this order.

In this structure, ITO (Indium Tin Oxide), which has small surface resistance and good transparency, is mainly used as the anode. The organic thin film is composed of a multilayer of a hole injecting layer, a hole transporting layer, a light emitting layer, a hole blocking layer, an electron transporting layer, and an electron injecting layer in order to increase the luminous efficiency. Organic materials used as the light emitting layer include Alq3, TPD, PBD, m-MTDATA, and TCTA. As the cathode, a LiF-Al metal film is used. And since the organic thin film is very weak to moisture and oxygen in the air, a sealing film for sealing is formed at the top to increase the lifetime of the device.

1, the organic electroluminescent device includes an anode, a cathode, and a light emitting layer interposed between the anode and the cathode. When the organic electroluminescent device is driven, holes are injected from the anode into the light emitting layer , Electrons are injected into the light emitting layer from the cathode. The holes and electrons injected into the light emitting layer are combined in the light emitting layer to generate excitons, and the excitons emit light while transitioning from the excited state to the ground state.

Such an organic electroluminescent device can be classified into a monochromatic or full color organic electroluminescent device according to the color to be realized. The full-color organic electroluminescent device includes red (R), green (G) and And a light emitting layer patterned for each blue (B) color is provided to realize a full color.

In the full-color organic electroluminescent device, the patterning of the light-emitting layer may be performed differently depending on the material forming the light-emitting layer.

OLED deposition methods for patterning the light emitting layer include a direct patterning method using a fine metal mask (hereinafter, referred to as a mask), a method using a LITI (Laser Induced Thermal Imaging) method, a method using a color filter, Mask Scanning) deposition method.

On the other hand, in the SMS deposition method described above, an organic material is deposited to the outside of the glass in the scanning direction because the organic material is deposited while scanning with a small mask.

Organic materials deposited on the substrate's outer surface may be inferior in adherence to the sealant when sealing the substrate. Therefore, in the present process, organic substances deposited on the substrate are removed after the deposition process is completed.

Dry etching has been used as a method of removing organic substances deposited on the outer periphery of a substrate, but recently, a method of using a dry type laser which does not affect the device has been considered.

However, in the case of the laser etching method, if the etching process is performed while the substrate is horizontally arranged, the organic particles separated from the substrate during the laser etching process may be re-adsorbed to the substrate, Therefore, it is urgent to develop the structure considering these points.

Korea Patent Office Application No. 10-1996-0031671

Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a method and apparatus for efficiently removing organic substances deposited on an outer surface of a substrate using a laser, and also to re-adsorb organic particles separated from the substrate, And a method of manufacturing the same.

According to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided a vacuum processing apparatus, comprising: a vacuum chamber in which an upper surface of a chucking module is etched with respect to a chucked substrate; A laser irradiator for irradiating a laser to etch the organic material deposited on the outer surface of the substrate; And a module rotating body connected to the chucking module and rotating the chucking module by a predetermined angle so that organic particles separated from the substrate in the etching process by the laser are not reabsorbed onto the substrate A laser etching apparatus can be provided.

The angle range in which the substrate is rotated by the module rotating body may be 90 degrees to 180 degrees.

The laser irradiator is fixed to the outside of the vacuum chamber and can irradiate the laser toward the inside of the vacuum chamber.

And a first laser port may be provided on a wall surface of the vacuum chamber in which the laser irradiator is disposed.

And a module moving body connected to the chucking module to move the chucking module to the first laser port area.

And a controller for controlling operations of the module rotating body and the module moving body.

The vacuum chamber may have an inlet and an outlet through which the chucking module is inserted and removed from the vacuum chamber, and a gate door may be coupled to the inlet and outlet area so as to be openable and closable.

The vacuum chamber may be partitioned into a first space through which the deposition process proceeds and a second space through which the deposition process does not proceed.

A fixed mirror fixedly disposed on one side of the second space and reflecting a laser beam radiated from the laser irradiator in a predetermined direction; And a moving mirror disposed movably in the periphery of the fixed mirror and reflecting the laser reflected from the fixed mirror back to the substrate in the first space.

And a mirror moving guide connected to the moving mirror to guide movement of the moving mirror.

The barrier rib may be formed with second and third laser ports for guiding the laser reflected from the moving mirror to the substrate in the first space.

The chucking module may be an electrostatic chuck, and the substrate may be an organic light emitting diode.

According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method of manufacturing a semiconductor device, comprising: a substrate loading step in which a chucked substrate is loaded by a chucking module into a vacuum chamber in which an etching process is performed; A substrate flip step of flicking the chucking module by a predetermined angle so that organic particles separated from the substrate during the etching process are not re-adsorbed to the substrate; And a substrate scanning step of scanning the substrate by irradiating a laser to an outer edge of the substrate to advance the etching process.

An angle range in which the substrate is rotated during the substrate flip step may be 90 degrees to 180 degrees.

The substrate scanning step may proceed while the substrate is being moved toward the laser being irradiated at a fixed location.

And a substrate chucking step in which the substrate is chucked to the chucking module outside the vacuum chamber before the substrate loading step.

And aligning the substrate to align the substrate before the substrate scanning step.

And a vision inspection step of inspecting an etching area after the substrate scanning step.

And a substrate unloading step in which the substrate is unloaded from the vacuum chamber after the vision inspection step.

According to the present invention, it is possible to efficiently remove the organic substances deposited on the outer edge of the substrate using a laser, and to prevent the organic particles separated from the substrate from being reabsorbed onto the substrate, have.

1 is a structural view of an organic electroluminescent device (OLED).
2 is a schematic view showing an etching and sealing structure for an OLED substrate.
FIGS. 3 to 7 are operation diagrams of the laser etching apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.
8 is a control block diagram of a laser etching apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.
9 is a flowchart of a laser etching method according to an embodiment of the present invention.
10 to 12 are operation diagrams of the laser etching apparatus according to another embodiment of the present invention, respectively.

In order to fully understand the present invention, operational advantages of the present invention, and objects achieved by the practice of the present invention, reference should be made to the accompanying drawings and the accompanying drawings which illustrate preferred embodiments of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Hereinafter, preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. Like reference symbols in the drawings denote like elements.

2 is a schematic view showing an etching and sealing structure for an OLED substrate.

Referring to this figure, an organic light emitting diode (OLED) substrate according to the present embodiment has a structure in which an organic material is deposited on a pattern glass as shown in FIG. 2 (a), and then sealed with a sealing glass .

At this time, since the organic substance deposited on the outer surface of the substrate is inferior in adhesion to the sealing agent (S, Sealing, see FIG. 2C) when the substrate is sealed, Organic matter deposited on the outer part should be removed.

As described above, when dry etching is used, plasma is not preferable because it may penetrate the device and cause characteristic deformation of the device. Therefore, in this embodiment, And the organic material deposited on one side (L1) and the other side (L2) of the outer frame is etched.

When the present embodiment is applied, organic substances deposited on one side (L1) and the other side (L2) of the outer frame part of the substrate can be efficiently removed by using a laser, unlike the prior art.

Particularly, due to the following structural features, the organic particles separated from the substrate can be re-adsorbed onto the substrate to prevent the production of the defective substrate. This will be described in detail with reference to FIG. 3 to FIG.

FIG. 8 is a control block diagram of a laser etching apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 9 is a flowchart illustrating a method of controlling the laser etching apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. 1 is a flow chart of a laser etching method according to an embodiment.

3 to 8, the laser etching apparatus according to the present embodiment includes an organic material deposited on one side (L1, see FIG. 2) and the other side (L2, see FIG. 2) And may include a vacuum chamber 110, a laser irradiator 120, a module rotating body 130, and a module moving body 140.

The vacuum chamber 110 forms a place where the etching process for the substrate proceeds. 2) and the other side (refer to FIG. 2) of the substrate by the laser irradiation method, since the inside of the chamber must maintain a vacuum, the vacuum chamber 110 . A vacuum pump (not shown) or the like may be provided at one side of the vacuum chamber 110 to maintain a proper vacuum pressure.

On one side wall of the vacuum chamber 110, an entrance / exit part 111 through which the substrate enters / exits is formed. A gate door 112 for opening and closing the access portion 111 is provided in the access portion 111 area.

The substrate which is put in and out of the vacuum chamber 110 through the entrance portion 111 is loaded into the vacuum chamber 110 or unloaded from the vacuum chamber 110 while being chucked by the chucking module 150. In the case of this embodiment, an electrostatic chuck is used as the chucking module 150.

For reference, an electrostatic chuck is briefly described. A chuck is a device for holding a substrate during a process, mainly divided into an E-chuck and an M-chuck. The M-chuck mechanically presses the substrate, so it can generate particles on the substrate and also make the edge of the substrate useless.

However, this problem has disappeared due to the development of the electrostatic chuck (ES-Chuck) being applied in this embodiment.

The electrostatic chuck (ES-Chuck) being applied in this embodiment improves the problem in the existing M-chuck by literally holding the substrate by the electrostatic force, that is, the electrostatic force.

Electrostatic chuck (ES-Chuck) includes Uni-polar, Bi-polar and Tri-polar type.

The Uni-polar type applies a positive voltage to the chuck, and is connected to the ground by chucking due to plasma generation. In order to dechuck the chuck, reverse bias should be applied. If the opposite reverse bias is not applied, the substrate is attracted for several to several tens of minutes even if the power supply is interrupted.

Bi-polar type is a structure in which chucking is released by applying reverse bias of applied voltage for chucking by applying +/- DC voltage to chuck. The chucking or chucking can be performed only by the chuck itself, and there is an advantage that no plasma is required.

The tri-polar type is similar to the Bi-polar type. One of the other is to read the DC self bias (Bias) generated in the plasma and compensate for the +/- voltage by Vdc, so that the net charge ) Should be zeroed.

The chucking module 150 applied in this embodiment applies Bi-polar type among the above-described types of electrostatic chuck (ES-Chuck). This is advantageous because the substrate can be continuously adsorbed for several to several tens of minutes even if the power supply is interrupted while the substrate is chucked.

However, uni-polar type or tri-polar type electrostatic chuck may be used. In addition, a magnetic chuck or an adsorption chuck may be used instead of the electrostatic chuck.

The laser irradiator 120 irradiates a laser to remove organic substances deposited on one side (L1) (see FIG. 2) and the other side (see FIG. 2) of the substrate.

In this embodiment, the laser irradiator 120 is fixed to the outside of the vacuum chamber 110 and irradiates the laser toward the inside of the vacuum chamber 110.

At this time, a first laser port 113 is provided on the wall surface of the vacuum chamber 110 where the laser irradiator 120 is disposed. The laser irradiator 120 allows the laser to be irradiated through the first laser port 113 to be directed to the substrate.

In this embodiment, the laser beam 120 is fixed in position, and the etching process is performed while moving the substrate through the chucking module 150. This may be a solution to the problem of laser imbalance when the laser irradiator 120 is moved and the problem of damage to the expensive laser irradiator 120.

However, if the laser can be stably irradiated, the etching process may be performed while moving the laser irradiator 120 while the substrate is fixed, unlike the present embodiment.

The module rotating body 130 is connected to the chucking module 150 as shown in FIG. 4, and the chucking module 150 is moved to a predetermined angle (not shown) so as to prevent the organic particles separated from the substrate from being re- As shown in FIG.

An angle range in which the substrate is rotated by the module rotating body 130 may be 90 degrees to 180 degrees, and in this embodiment, 100 degrees is selected.

If the etching process is performed through the laser in a state in which the substrate is flipped at 100 degrees as in the present embodiment, the organic particles separated from the substrate at the angle may be re-adsorbed onto the substrate to prevent the production of the defective substrate .

Therefore, it is advantageous that the angle of rotation of the substrate is 100 degrees or more, but it is sufficient to prevent the organic particles separated from the substrate from being reabsorbed to the substrate again to produce the defective substrate if the substrate has a range of 90 degrees to 180 degrees.

The module moving body 140 is connected to the chucking module 150 to move the chucking module 150 to the first laser port 113 area.

As with the module rotating body 130, the operation of the module moving body 140 can also be controlled by the controller 160.

The module rotating body 130 and the module moving body 140 are schematically illustrated in the drawing by the module rotating body 130 and the module moving body 140. The module rotating body 130 and the module moving body 140 are connected to each other by a motor, a ball screw, a cylinder, and the like.

On the other hand, the controller 160 may include a central processing unit (CPU) 161, a memory 162 (MEMORY), and a support circuit 163 (SUPPORT CIRCUIT) as shown in FIG.

The central processing unit 161 may be one of various computer processors that can be industrially applied to control the operation of the module rotating body 130 and the module moving body 140 in this embodiment.

The memory 162 (MEMORY) is connected to the central processing unit 161. [ The memory 162 may be a computer-readable recording medium and may be located locally or remotely and may be any of various types of storage devices, including, for example, a random access memory (RAM), a ROM, a floppy disk, At least one or more memories.

A support circuit 163 (SUPPORT CIRCUIT) is coupled with the central processing unit 161 to support the typical operation of the processor. Such a support circuit 163 may include a cache, a power supply, a clock circuit, an input / output circuit, a subsystem, and the like.

In this embodiment, the controller 160 controls the operation of the module rotating body 130 and the module moving body 140, and such a series of processes and the like can be stored in the memory 162. Typically, a software routine may be stored in the memory 162. The software routines may also be stored or executed by other central processing units (not shown).

Although processes according to the present invention are described as being performed by software routines, it is also possible that at least some of the processes of the present invention may be performed by hardware. As such, the processes of the present invention may be implemented in software executed on a computer system, or in hardware such as an integrated circuit, or in combination of software and hardware.

Hereinafter, the laser etching method of this embodiment will be described.

First, the substrate is chucked to the chucking module 150 from the outside of the vacuum chamber 110 (S11). As previously described, the chucking module 150 is applied as an electrostatic chuck, and the substrate can be chucked on top of the chucking module 150.

The substrate chucked in a face up state on the chucking module 150 enters the vacuum chamber 110 through the entrance portion 111 by the chucking module 150 and is loaded at the corresponding position as shown in Figure 4 S12).

Next, the chucking module 150 is flipped (S13) by the predetermined angle as shown in FIG. 5 by the operation of the module rotating body 130 so that organic particles separated from the substrate in the etching process are not reabsorbed to the substrate, The substrate is tilted in a face down state. The slope at this time may be approximately 100 degrees.

After the substrate is tilted in a face down state, the substrate is aligned (S14). Then, a substrate scanning step (S15) for scanning the substrate by irradiating laser to the outer edge of the substrate for the progress of the etching process is performed do.

During the substrate scanning step (S15), the substrate is moved toward the laser irradiated at the fixed position to perform the etching process. That is, when the substrate is moved by a predetermined distance as shown in FIG. 6 by the module moving body 140, organic matter deposited on one side (L1, see FIG. 2) of the substrate by the laser irradiated is removed, The organic material deposited on the other side of the substrate (L2, see FIG. 2) is removed by the laser irradiated when the substrate is further moved by a predetermined distance as shown in FIG.

Next, after the substrate scanning step S15 is performed to remove organic substances deposited on one side L1 (see FIG. 2) and the other side L2 (see FIG. 2) of the substrate, the portion etched through the vision is inspected (S16), the substrate is unloaded through the above-described reverse operation (S17).

According to this embodiment having such a structure and operation, it is possible to efficiently remove the organic substances deposited on the outer edge of the substrate by using a laser, and further, the organic particles separated from the substrate are again adsorbed on the substrate It is possible to prevent the production of defective substrates.

10 to 12 are operation diagrams of the laser etching apparatus according to another embodiment of the present invention, respectively.

Referring to these drawings, in the case of the laser etching apparatus of this embodiment, the vacuum chamber 210 is divided into a first space 210a through which the deposition process is performed by the partition 211 and a second space 210b ).

A first laser port 213 is provided on a sidewall of the second space 210b adjacent to the laser irradiator 220 and second and third laser ports 214 and 215 are provided on the partition 211,

The chucked substrate is loaded into the chucking module 250 in the first space 210a. In the second space 210b, a fixed mirror 270, a moving mirror 280, and a mirror moving guide 290 are provided.

The fixed mirror 270, the movable mirror 280, and the mirror moving guide 290 are provided in the second isolated space 210b because the fixed mirror 270, the movable mirror 280, and the mirror moving guide 290 are provided in the isolated second space 210b. ) Is not contaminated.

The fixed mirror 270, the moving mirror 280 and the mirror moving guide 290 are fixed to the outer side of the substrate (L1, 2) and the other side (L2, see Fig. 2).

The stationary mirror 270 is fixedly disposed on one side of the second space 210b. The fixed mirror 270 reflects the laser beam irradiated through the first laser port 213 from the laser irradiator 220 to the moving mirror 280 at the corresponding position. Therefore, the fixed mirror 270 is disposed with a constant inclination.

The movable mirror 280 is shifted as shown in Figs. 11 and 12, unlike the fixed mirror 270. Fig. The moving mirror 280 reflects the laser beam reflected by the fixed mirror 270 and reflects the laser beam again through the second and third laser ports 214 and 215 to one side L1 of the substrate (see FIG. 2) 2) and serves to etch the outer frame of the substrate.

The mirror moving guide 290 is provided to guide movement of the movable mirror 280 as shown in FIGS. The mirror moving guide 290 can be applied to the ordinary LM guide.

Hereinafter, the laser etching method of this embodiment will be described.

First, the substrate chucked in a face-up state on the chucking module 250 is introduced into the first space 210a of the vacuum chamber 210 through the entrance portion 211 by the chucking module 250 As shown in FIG.

Next, in order to prevent the organic particles separated from the substrate from being re-adsorbed on the substrate during the etching process, the chucking module 250 is rotated at a predetermined angle, for example, 100 degrees as shown in FIG. 11 by the operation of a module rotation So that the substrate is tilted in a face down state.

When the substrate is tilted in a face down state, the laser is irradiated through the first laser port 213 in the laser irradiator 220. The irradiated laser is respectively reflected by the fixed mirror 270 and the moving mirror 280 and is transmitted to the one side L1 of the substrate (see FIG. 2) through the second laser port 214 to the other side L1 of the substrate , See Fig. 2).

When the process is completed, the moving mirror 280 is moved through the mirror moving guide 290 as shown in FIG. When the movement of the movable mirror 280 is completed, the laser is irradiated through the first laser port 213 in the laser irradiator 220. The irradiated laser is reflected by the fixed mirror 270 and the moving mirror 280 and is transmitted to the other side L2 of the substrate (refer to FIG. 2) through the third laser port 215 to the other side L2 of the substrate , See Fig. 2).

The structure similar to that of this embodiment is different from that of the first embodiment in that the module moving body 140 (see FIG. 4) is not used but the fixed mirror 270, the moving mirror 280 and the mirror moving guide The module moving body 140 (see FIG. 3) is not used. In this case, the height of the vacuum chamber 210 can be lowered It will be advantageous to apply it to the etching process of a large substrate.

Even if such a structure is applied, organic substances deposited on the outer edge of the substrate can be efficiently removed using a laser, and organic particles separated from the substrate can be re-adsorbed onto the substrate to prevent the production of a defective substrate .

It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various modifications and variations can be made in the present invention without departing from the spirit or scope of the invention. Accordingly, such modifications or variations are intended to fall within the scope of the appended claims.

110: vacuum chamber 111:
112: gate door 113: first laser port
120: laser irradiator 130: module rotating body
140: module moving body 150: chucking module
160: Controller

Claims (19)

A vacuum chamber in which an etching process for the chucked substrate proceeds on the upper surface of the chucking module;
A laser irradiator for irradiating a laser to etch the organic material deposited on the outer surface of the substrate;
A module rotating body connected to the chucking module and rotating the chucking module by a predetermined angle so that organic particles separated from the substrate during the etching process by the laser are not reabsorbed to the substrate; And
And a module moving body connected to the chucking module and moving the chucking module to a first laser port area provided on a wall surface of the vacuum chamber in which the laser irradiator is disposed. The method according to claim 1,
Wherein an angle range in which the substrate is rotated by the module rotating body is 90 degrees to 180 degrees. The method according to claim 1,
Wherein the laser irradiator is fixed to the outside of the vacuum chamber and irradiates the laser toward the inside of the vacuum chamber. delete delete The method according to claim 1,
Further comprising a controller for controlling operations of the module rotating body and the module moving body. The method according to claim 1,
And a chucking module is formed at one side of the vacuum chamber,
And a gate door is coupled to the access portion so as to be openable and closable. The method according to claim 1,
The inner space of the vacuum chamber is partitioned into a first space and a second space by partition walls,
Wherein the etching process for the substrate proceeds in the first space,
And the etching process is not performed on the substrate in the second space. 9. The method of claim 8,
A fixed mirror fixedly disposed on one side of the second space and reflecting a laser beam radiated from the laser irradiator in a predetermined direction; And
Further comprising a moving mirror movably disposed around the fixed mirror and reflecting the laser reflected from the fixed mirror back to the substrate in the first space. 10. The method of claim 9,
And a mirror movement guide connected to the movable mirror for guiding movement of the movable mirror. 10. The method of claim 9,
Wherein the barrier ribs are formed with second and third laser ports for guiding the laser reflected from the moving mirror to the substrate in the first space. The method according to claim 1,
Wherein the chucking module is an electrostatic chuck,
Wherein the substrate is an organic light emitting diode (OLED). A substrate loading step in which a chucked substrate is loaded by a chucking module into a vacuum chamber in which an etching process is performed;
A substrate flip step of flicking the chucking module by a predetermined angle so that organic particles separated from the substrate during the etching process are not re-adsorbed to the substrate; And
And a substrate scanning step of scanning the substrate by irradiating a laser to an outer edge of the substrate to advance the etching process. 14. The method of claim 13,
Wherein an angle range in which the substrate is rotated during the substrate flip step is in a range of 90 to 180 degrees. 14. The method of claim 13,
Wherein the substrate scanning step is performed while the substrate is moved toward a laser irradiated at a fixed position. 14. The method of claim 13,
Further comprising a substrate chucking step wherein the substrate is chucked to the chucking module outside the vacuum chamber prior to the substrate loading step. 14. The method of claim 13,
Further comprising aligning the substrate to align the substrate prior to the substrate scanning step. 14. The method of claim 13,
Further comprising a vision inspection step of inspecting the etching area after the substrate scanning step. 19. The method of claim 18,
And a substrate unloading step in which the substrate is unloaded from the vacuum chamber after the vision inspection step.

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