KR20120044590A - Shower type deposition apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: A showerhead type deposition apparatus is provided to offer uniform deposition gas to a large-size substrate using a gas spray module split into a plurality of shower heads. CONSTITUTION: A showerhead type deposition apparatus comprises a plurality of shower heads(131) and a top vent part(133). The shower heads have a plurality of spray holes to provide deposition gas to a substrate and spray deposition gas, respectively, wherein the adjacent shower heads spray different types of deposition gas. The top vent part has a plurality of vent holes formed between the shower heads and sucks and discharges exhaust gas from the top of the substrate.

Description

Shower head type deposition apparatus {SHOWER TYPE DEPOSITION APPARATUS}

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a deposition apparatus for a substrate for a flat panel display apparatus, and more particularly to a deposition apparatus of a showerhead type for uniformly forming a thin film on a large area substrate, such as a substrate for a flat panel display apparatus.

Flat panel displays (FPDs) include liquid crystal displays (LCDs), plasma display panels (PDPs), organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs), and the like. Among them, an organic light emitting display device is attracting attention as a next generation display device because of its characteristics such as self-luminous, wide viewing angle, high-speed response characteristics, low power consumption, and ultra-thin characteristics. An organic light emitting display device typically includes a first electrode, a hole injection layer, a hole transfer layer, an emission layer, and an electron transport layer corresponding to an anode on a glass substrate. layer, an organic layer composed of a multilayer of an electron injection layer, and a second electrode corresponding to a cathode.

Organic thin film formation methods include vacuum deposition, sputtering, ion-beam deposition, pulsed-laser deposition, molecular beam deposition, chemical vapor deposition (CVD), and spin coater (spinning). coater).

In addition, an encapsulation thin film is required to protect the organic thin film from moisture, and methods for forming the encapsulation thin film include vacuum deposition, sputtering, chemical vapor deposition, and atomic layer deposition (ALD).

In the atomic layer deposition method, since a thin film is formed on the surface of a substrate by providing a plurality of deposition gases and reacting, it is important to uniformly provide the deposition gas to the substrate surface. However, in recent years, as the size of the substrate is gradually increased, it is difficult to uniformly provide the deposition gas to the substrate. In addition, the organic material that is the source of the deposition gas for forming a thin film on the substrate is very expensive, in order to form a uniform thin film is a large amount of wasted because of the large amount of deposition gas in the conventional case, which causes a cost increase do.

Embodiments of the present invention for solving the above problems are to provide a deposition apparatus for an atomic layer deposition type flat panel display device capable of uniformly depositing a thin film on a large area substrate.

In addition, the present invention is to provide a deposition apparatus for a flat panel display device capable of uniformly providing a deposition gas injection amount to a large area substrate.

According to embodiments of the present invention for achieving the above object of the present invention, it is possible to form a uniform thin film on a large area substrate, such as a substrate for a flat panel display device, the showerhead type deposition apparatus for a flat panel display device The gas injection module includes a plurality of shower heads formed with a plurality of injection holes to provide deposition gas to a substrate, and a plurality of exhaust holes formed between the shower heads, and a tower exhaust unit for sucking and exhausting exhaust gas from the upper portion of the substrate. It is configured to include.

According to one aspect, the shower head is formed to inject one type of deposition gas in each of the shower head, the neighboring shower head may be provided to inject different deposition gas.

According to one aspect, the shower head may have a dual structure to inject two or more different deposition gases from one shower head.

According to one aspect, the showerhead is formed so that the precursor gas and the reactance gas is sprayed in one showerhead, it may be formed to be sprayed through a flow path independent from each other inside the showerhead having a dual structure.

Here, the shower head may be formed so that the precursor gas and the reactant gas are sprayed onto different shower heads, and the purge gas may be formed to be sprayed from the shower head to which the precursor gas or the reactant gas is injected.

According to one aspect, the tower exhaust is formed to surround the respective shower heads. The tower exhaust unit may be configured to discharge the exhaust gas at the same time as the purge step in which the purge gas is provided in the shower head or immediately after the purge step.

As described above, according to the embodiments of the present invention, the deposition gas can be uniformly provided to the substrate by the showerhead method, so that the thin film can be uniformly deposited on the large-area substrate like the substrate for the flat panel display device. .

In addition, by forming the gas injection module into a plurality of shower heads, it is possible to uniformly provide the deposition gas to a large area substrate.

In addition, the thin film may be deposited by an atomic layer deposition method, and a thin film having excellent step coverage may be formed.

1 is a plan view of a gas injection module in a deposition apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view of a part of the gas injection module of FIG. 1.
3 is a cross-sectional view illustrating main parts of the gas injection module according to a modified embodiment of FIG. 2.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings, but the present invention is not limited to or limited by the embodiments. In describing the present invention, a detailed description of well-known functions or constructions may be omitted for clarity of the present invention.

1 is a plan view briefly showing only the gas injection module 130 in the showerhead deposition apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 2 is a sectional view illustrating main parts of the deposition apparatus of FIG. 1, and FIG. 3 is a sectional view illustrating main parts of the gas injection module according to a modified embodiment of FIG. 2.

Referring to the drawings, the deposition apparatus for a flat panel display device includes a gas injection module 103 for providing a plurality of different deposition gases to the substrate 10 to form a predetermined thin film.

For reference, the deposition apparatus described in the present embodiments is formed such that a thin film can be deposited on the large-area substrate 10, such as a substrate for a flat panel display device, and in this embodiment, the substrate 10 to be deposited is an LCD. It may be a transparent substrate 10 including glass used for a flat panel display device such as a liquid crystal display (PDP) or a plasma display panel (PDP). However, the substrate 10 of the present invention is not limited to the glass substrate and may be a silicon wafer for manufacturing a semiconductor device. In addition, the shape and size of the substrate 10 is not limited by the drawings, and may have substantially various shapes and sizes, such as a circle and a rectangle.

On the other hand, the detailed technical configuration of the process chamber and the susceptor constituting the deposition apparatus can be understood from known techniques and are not the gist of the present invention, and thus detailed descriptions and illustrations will be omitted and only the main components will be briefly described.

According to this embodiment, in order to manufacture the board | substrate for flat panel display apparatuses, the metal layer of several micrometers thickness is formed in the board | substrate, for example, a glass substrate. According to this embodiment, since the showerhead method is used, the deposition gas can be uniformly provided, thereby forming a uniform thin film on the large-area substrate. In addition, since the thin film is formed by atomic layer deposition or organometallic chemical vapor deposition using excellent step coverage, the step coverage of the thin film formed on the substrate is excellent. However, the present invention is not limited thereto, and it will be obvious that the present invention can be applied to deposition apparatuses such as semiconductor substrates as well as flat panel display apparatuses.

In the case of the organometallic chemical vapor deposition method or the atomic layer deposition method, a predetermined thin film is formed by alternately repeating the gas to the substrate 10 and chemically reacting the provided deposition gas on the surface of the substrate 10.

In addition, in the present embodiment, the term 'source gas' is a gas containing a source material for depositing a predetermined thin film, and a precursor gas including a constituent element forming the thin film and the A reactant gas that chemically reacts with the precursor gas to form a thin film according to a predetermined reaction product, and a purge gas for removing unreacted gas and residual gas such as the precursor gas and the reactant gas. ) May be included.

In addition, in the present embodiment, the term 'hole' may include not only a hole having a circular cross section but also a hole, a slit, and an opening having a polygonal cross section.

Referring to the drawings, the gas injection module 103 includes a plurality of shower heads 131 having a plurality of injection holes 132 for injecting the deposition gas, and supplies the deposition gas to the shower head 131. Gas supply unit 140 is connected. In addition, the gas injection module 130 may be provided with a plurality of shower heads 131 for injecting two or more different deposition gases.

According to the present embodiment, the gas injection module 130 is divided into a plurality of shower heads 131 to alternately provide a plurality of deposition gases to the substrate 10. For example, the gas injection module 130 may have a substantially rectangular shape having a size and a shape corresponding to the substrate 10, and the showerhead 131 may uniformly cross the gas injection module 130 in the horizontal or longitudinal direction. It has a rectangular shape to divide.

However, the shape and number of the shower head 131 is not limited by the drawings, and the various shapes and numbers of the plurality of the gas injection module 130 may be evenly divided according to the size and shape of the gas injection module 130. The shower head 131 may be provided.

Here, the gas injection module 130 may be formed such that one type of deposition gas is injected from each shower head 131, and different deposition gases may be injected from each of the plurality of shower heads 131. Alternatively, the gas injection module 130 may simultaneously provide two or more different deposition gases from one shower head 131. However, the present invention is not limited by the drawings, and the gas injection module 130 may be substantially changed in number, size, and shape of the shower head 131.

In addition, the gas injection module 130 is formed such that a plurality of different types of deposition gases provided from the shower head 131 may be provided independently from each other in the shower head 131. In addition, a tower exhaust 133 is provided between the shower heads 131 to suck and discharge the exhaust gas and the unreacted deposition gas from the upper portion of the substrate 10. And one side of the top exhaust 133 is connected to the exhaust exhaust 150 for exhausting the exhaust gas. In FIG. 2, reference numerals 145 and 155 denote valves 145 and 155 for opening and closing the flow path for supplying the deposition gas and the flow path for exhaust gas, respectively.

The tower exhaust part 133 includes a plurality of exhaust holes 134 formed around the shower head 131. For example, as illustrated in FIG. 1, the tower exhaust unit 133 is formed by arranging holes having a predetermined size in a row or a plurality of rows between the shower heads 131. However, unless the present invention is limited by the drawings, the size, position and number of the exhaust holes 134 may be changed in various ways. For example, the top exhaust part 133 may have an exhaust hole 134 disposed in a quadrangular shape in the gas injection module 130 so as to surround the entire shower head 131. In addition, the exhaust hole 134 may be a hole having a polygonal cross section or a slit as well as a hole having a circular cross section.

According to the present exemplary embodiment, by providing the top exhaust unit 133, the exhaust gas may be sucked and discharged from the upper portion of the substrate 10 to improve the exhaust gas emission efficiency. Here, when the substrate 10 has a relatively large area, the size of the gas injection module 130 increases, so that the partial pressure of gas decreases in the middle of the gas injection module 130, and the exhaust discharge pressure provided in the process chamber (not shown). The gas can stagnate because it is difficult to be affected. When the stagnation of such gas occurs, it is difficult for the deposition gas to be provided to the substrate 10 to be lowered and uniformly provided, and since the exhaust gas is not removed, particles are generated in the substrate 10, thereby resulting in the quality of the thin film. Can be degraded. However, according to the present exemplary embodiment, the top exhaust unit 133 discharges the exhaust gas from the large area of the gas injection module 130 to increase the exhaust efficiency of the exhaust gas and to remove the unreacted deposition gas from the substrate 10. Since it has a purge effect to remove, it is possible to prevent the stagnation of the exhaust gas, and to effectively provide the deposition gas to the substrate 10, thereby effectively preventing the quality of the thin film.

The gas injection module 130 may inject one type of deposition gas from one shower head 131. For example, as shown in FIG. 1, in the gas injection module 130, the two showerheads 131 on the left side of the drawing are sprayed with precursor gas, and the next two showerheads 131 are purge gas. Is sprayed, and the right two showerheads 131 are configured to inject reactant gas, and a predetermined thin film is formed on the substrate 10 by sequentially spraying deposition gas from each of the showerheads 131. .

Alternatively, the gas injection module 130 is connected to spray two or more different deposition gases onto one shower head 131 in the shower head 131 having the structure as shown in FIG. The gas may optionally be provided to the substrate 10 by a switching means such as a valve.

Here, the gas injection module 130 operates the tower exhaust unit 150 at the same time as the purge step in which the purge gas is provided from the shower head 131 to discharge the exhaust gas from the upper portion of the substrate 10 and improve the purge efficiency. You can. Of course, the gas injection module 130 may be operated immediately after the purge gas is injected to operate to discharge the exhaust gas.

On the other hand, unlike the above-described embodiment, the gas injection module 130 may be formed to inject two or more different deposition gases to one shower head 131. For example, as illustrated in FIG. 3, the gas injection module 230 may have a dual structure having a dual structure such that one shower head 231 may inject two or more different deposition gases through different flow paths. A dual type showerhead 231 may be used. In the case of the second embodiment shown in Figure 3 is substantially the same except for the above-described embodiment and the showerhead is formed in a dual manner, the same components and the same reference numerals are used for the same components and duplicate descriptions are omitted. do.

Referring to FIG. 3, the shower head 231 is provided with a separation plate 302 inside the shower head 231 so that two different deposition gases may be injected through independent flow paths. The inner space may be divided into two buffer spaces in a horizontal direction, and two different deposition gases may be injected through the spaces. In addition, a plurality of injection holes 311 and 321 are formed in the surface of the shower head 231 and the separation plate 302, so that the deposition gas supplied to each buffer space may be provided to the substrate 10.

In addition, the gas injection module 230 is connected to the gas supply unit 240 for supplying the deposition gas, the shower head 231 is two gas supply source 241 for supplying two different deposition gas to each buffer space 243) is connected.

A plurality of exhaust holes are formed between the shower heads 231 along the periphery of the shower head 231, and a top exhaust part 233 is formed to suck and exhaust the exhaust gas from the upper portion of the substrate 10. In addition, an exhaust discharge part 250 for sucking exhaust gas through the tower exhaust part 233 is connected to one side of the tower exhaust part 233.

In FIG. 3, reference numerals 245, 246, and 255 denote valves 245, 246, and 255 for opening and closing the flow path for supplying the deposition gas and the flow path for exhaust gas, respectively.

Meanwhile, in the embodiments shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, the gas injection module sequentially provides the precursor gas and the reactance gas alternately so that the precursor gas and the reactance gas are chemically reacted on the surface of the substrate 10. To form. The purge gas may be provided between the precursor gas and the reactant gas, or may be provided simultaneously with the reactant gas. In this case, in the exemplary embodiment shown in FIG. 2, the gas supply unit 140 may be connected to each shower head 131 so that the precursor gas, the reactance gas, and the purge gas are injected, and sequentially provided. Of course, the purge gas may be injected continuously instead of intermittently.

In the case of the embodiment shown in FIG. 3, the shower gas and the reactant gas are alternately sprayed by the shower head 231 having a dual structure, or the shower head and the reactant gas are sprayed by the precursor gas. Each head may be provided, and the purge gas may be configured to be injected simultaneously or alternately with the reactant gas (and / or precursor gas).

According to the present embodiment, each shower head 131 is formed by dividing the gas spray module 130 having a large area into a plurality of shower heads 131 having a relatively small area and volume, compared to when the gas spray module 130 is formed as one. It is effective to keep the injection pressure of the deposition gas at a constant, it is possible to maintain a constant film quality.

While the present invention has been particularly shown and described with reference to exemplary embodiments thereof, it is to be understood that the invention is not limited to the disclosed exemplary embodiments. In addition, the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiments, and various modifications and variations are possible to those skilled in the art to which the present invention pertains. Therefore, the spirit of the present invention should not be limited to the above-described embodiments, and all the things that are equivalent to or equivalent to the scope of the claims as well as the claims to be described later belong to the scope of the present invention.

10: Substrate
130, 230: gas injection module
131, 231: showerhead
132, 311, 321: injection hole
133, 233: tower exhaust
134: exhaust hole
140, 240, 241, 243: gas supply unit
145, 245, 246: valve
150, 250 exhaust exhaust
155, 255: valve
301: separation plate

Claims (8)

In the gas injection module of the vapor deposition apparatus for flat panel display devices,
A plurality of shower heads formed with a plurality of injection holes to provide deposition gas to the substrate; And
A tower exhaust part formed of a plurality of exhaust holes formed between the shower heads and configured to suck and exhaust exhaust gas from the upper portion of the substrate;
Gas injection module of the deposition apparatus for a flat panel display device comprising a.
The method of claim 1,
The shower head is formed to inject one type of deposition gas from each shower head,
The neighboring shower heads are gas injection modules of a deposition apparatus for a flat panel display device, provided to spray different deposition gases.
The method of claim 1,
The shower head is formed to inject one type of deposition gas from each shower head,
The neighboring shower heads are gas injection modules of a deposition apparatus for a flat panel display device, provided to spray different deposition gases.
The method of claim 1,
The shower head is a gas injection module of the deposition apparatus for a flat panel display device having a dual (dual) structure to inject two or more different deposition gases from one shower head.
The method of claim 3,
The showerhead is formed such that the precursor gas and the reactance gas are sprayed in one showerhead,
The gas injection module of the deposition apparatus for a flat panel display device formed to be injected through the flow paths independent from each other in the shower head having a dual structure.
The method according to claim 2 or 3,
The showerhead is formed such that the precursor gas and the reactance gas are sprayed onto different showerheads,
The gas injection module of the deposition apparatus for a flat panel display device, wherein the purge gas is sprayed from the shower head to which the precursor gas or the reactance gas is injected.
The method of claim 1,
The gas exhaust module of the deposition apparatus for a flat panel display device wherein the top exhaust portion is formed to surround the respective shower heads.
The method of claim 6,
And the tower exhaust portion is configured to discharge the exhaust gas simultaneously with or immediately after the purge step in which the purge gas is provided in the shower head.
Deposition apparatus for a flat panel display device having a gas injection module according to any one of claims 1 to 7.

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