KR20130045431A - Thin film deposition apparatus with improved deposition rate - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: A thin film deposition apparatus with improved deposition efficiency is provided to vapor deposit a deposition material intensively on a substrate which maintains at an optimal temperature. CONSTITUTION: A thin film deposition apparatus with improved deposit efficiency comprises a deposition source(23), a temperature control unit(37), and a chamber(30). The deposition source stores a deposition source material(31) and discharges the deposition material on a substrate(21). The temperature control unit is installed in the periphery of the substrate. The chamber accommodates the disposition source and the temperature control unit.

Description

Thin film deposition apparatus with improved deposition efficiency {THIN FILM DEPOSITION APPARATUS WITH IMPROVED DEPOSITION RATE}

The present invention relates to a thin film deposition apparatus having improved deposition efficiency, and more particularly, by installing a temperature control unit in a chamber that maintains a substrate or a temperature around the substrate at an appropriate temperature, inducing intensive deposition of a deposition material and forming a thin film on a deposition surface. A thin film deposition apparatus for improving uniformity.

In general, organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs) are self-luminous display devices that are in the spotlight as next generation display devices, and have almost no blind spots in picture quality than pictures, and are one third of the thickness of LCDs. It can reduce the power consumption and the response speed is as fast as 1/1000 of LCD, so high quality video can be realized.

In the organic light emitting device having the above characteristics, holes move from a cathode to a hole transfer layer, electrons move from an anode to an electron transfer layer, and are located between the hole transport layer and the electron transport layer. In the light emitting layer, the holes and the electrons recombine to form excitons, and light having a specific wavelength is generated by energy from the formed excitons.

The organic thin film layer such as the hole transport layer, the light emitting layer, and the electron transport layer is generally formed by evaporating the organic material contained in the crucible in the high vacuum chamber by depositing the evaporated organic material on one surface of the substrate. As shown in FIG. 1, the organic substance is deposited on the substrate 11 in the high vacuum chamber by heating the organic substance in a deposition source 13 including a crucible for storing the organic substance and a heating means such as a heater for heating the organic substance. However, such deposition is a random deposition due to the free movement of the evaporated organics, making it difficult to obtain high deposition efficiency. In order to solve this problem, a large crucible may be used to increase the amount of evaporation of organic matter, or a linear or surface deposition source having a plurality of nozzles may be used, but it is difficult to maintain a constant amount of evaporation of organic matter. The problem arises that the thin film thickness of. In particular, thin film uniformity of the deposition surface is further degraded for the recent large area substrates. In general, the deposition thickness of the organic material should be in the range of 200 ~ 2000Å, uniformity should be deposited to 5% or less.

In order to solve the problems of the prior art as described above, the Republic of Korea Patent Publication No. 10-2011-0024223 (2011.03.09) "Evaporation apparatus and vacuum deposition apparatus including the same" (Patent Document 1) is disclosed have. Specifically, Patent Document 1 provides a blocking plate 360 on the crucible cover 320 and a cooling means such as a cooling water flow path on the surface or inside of the blocking plate 360 to provide heat transferred from the deposition source to the substrate. By blocking, increasing the uniformity of the thin film deposited on the substrate and reducing the loss of organic matter (see Fig. 9, paragraph numbers [0007], [0049], [0050]).

However, in the deposition apparatus of Patent Document 1, the evaporation amount of the organic material is reduced by lowering the temperature around the deposition source, and the capacity of the heater is increased to maintain the deposition efficiency, making it difficult to control uniform temperature, and the organic material is controlled to the desired amount. Even if evaporated, there is a problem that the installation and control of the cooling means installed in the blocking plate is not easy.

Meanwhile, Korean Unexamined Patent Publication No. 10-2007-0038640 (April 11, 2007) discloses "Linear large-area organic device mass production equipment by a bottom-up thermal induction deposition" (Patent Document 2). Specifically, in Patent Document 2, the metal substrate 21 is brought into contact with the cooling device 54 connected to the chiller 55, thereby releasing heat energy of the metal substrate 21 to cool the metal substrate (Fig. 8, See second paragraph on page 5.)

However, the vapor deposition apparatus of patent document 2 has the problem that unevenness of the temperature distribution of a board | substrate is brought about by making a cooling apparatus directly contact a part of board | substrate, and the uniformity of the thin film of the whole board | substrate is not constant.

1. Republic of Korea Patent Publication No. 10-2011-0024223 (2011.03.09) 2. Republic of Korea Patent Publication No. 10-2007-0038640 (2007.04.11)

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to solve the problems of the prior art, and to provide a thin film deposition apparatus having improved deposition efficiency by inducing a concentrated deposition of a deposition material on a substrate maintained at an appropriate temperature.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a thin film deposition apparatus for improving the thin film uniformity of the deposition surface.

The present invention to achieve the above object, at least one deposition source for storing the deposition material, and discharge the deposition material on a substrate; At least one temperature controller installed around the substrate to adjust the temperature of the substrate or the substrate; And at least one chamber accommodating the deposition source and the temperature control unit.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, the temperature control unit comprises a cold and hot plate located around the substrate; And a temperature control unit for controlling the temperature of the cold plate, wherein the deposition source is located on a lower surface of the chamber, and the cold plate is located on an upper surface of the chamber, wherein the substrate is connected to the deposition source. It may be disposed between the cold plate.

The cold plate may be installed to have an area corresponding to the area of the upper surface of the chamber or the area of the substrate, or may be installed to have a length corresponding to the horizontal length or vertical length of the chamber or the substrate, the deposition source is the cold temperature The number corresponding to the plate may be provided.

In the thin film deposition apparatus, the temperature control unit cools the cold plate when the temperature is lowered around the substrate or the substrate, and when the ambient temperature of the substrate or the substrate is raised, use the ambient temperature inside the chamber or control the temperature. The cold plate may be heated by a unit.

According to another embodiment of the present invention, the cold plate is composed of a plurality of units, the temperature can be adjusted for each unit.

The thin film deposition apparatus may maintain the temperature of the substrate or the substrate periphery at 70 ° C. or less through the temperature controller.

According to another embodiment of the present invention, the thin film deposition apparatus may further include at least one temperature sensor in the chamber to sense the temperature of the substrate or the surroundings of the substrate.

According to another embodiment of the present invention, the thin film deposition apparatus includes a plurality of nozzles connected to the deposition source, and further includes at least one nozzle portion discharged through the plurality of nozzles when the deposition material is discharged. In this case, the nozzle unit can adjust the distance to the substrate.

According to another embodiment of the present invention, the thin film deposition apparatus includes a plurality of nozzles connected to the deposition source, and further includes at least one nozzle portion discharged through the plurality of nozzles when the deposition material is discharged. However, the cold plate may be installed to have a length corresponding to the horizontal length of the nozzle portion, in this case, the nozzle portion is possible to adjust the distance to the substrate.

According to another embodiment of the present invention, the thin film deposition apparatus may be an inline method in which each chamber is continuously connected to each other when two or more chambers are provided, and each chamber may include the deposition source and the cold plate. Each one is accommodated, different deposition materials may be stored in the deposition source of each chamber.

Thin film deposition apparatus according to the present invention made as described above to prevent the temperature rise around the substrate or the substrate through at least one or more temperature control unit to maintain a proper temperature to induce the deposition material to be concentrated on the substrate to increase the deposition efficiency Improve.

In addition, it is possible to reduce the loss of the deposition material by increasing the amount of the deposition material, and to improve the uniformity of the thin film on the deposition surface to cope with a large area substrate.

1 is a conceptual diagram illustrating a conventional thin film deposition apparatus.
2 is a conceptual diagram illustrating a thin film deposition apparatus according to the present invention.
3 is a cross-sectional view showing an example inside the chamber of the thin film deposition apparatus according to the present invention.
4 is a plan view showing an example of a temperature control unit of the thin film deposition apparatus according to the present invention.
5 is a plan view showing another example of the temperature control unit of the thin film deposition apparatus according to the present invention.
6 is a conceptual diagram illustrating an inline thin film deposition apparatus according to the present invention.

Hereinafter, a thin film deposition apparatus having improved deposition efficiency according to the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings, but the present invention is not limited or limited thereto.

Technical features of the thin film deposition apparatus according to the present invention, as shown in Figure 2, for example, by installing a temperature control unit including a cold plate 25 around the substrate 21, the deposition due to the temperature rise around the substrate or the substrate It is to prevent efficiency from falling. In the related art, as shown in FIG. 1, it is difficult to obtain high deposition efficiency due to random deposition of evaporated organic materials. It can be induced to be deposited to improve the deposition efficiency. In addition, it is possible to reduce the loss of the deposition material by increasing the amount of the deposition material, and to improve the uniformity of the thin film on the deposition surface to cope with a large area substrate.

More specifically, the thin film deposition apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention heat evaporates the deposition material 31 stored in the crucible therein as shown in FIG. 3, and passes the substrate 21 through a patterned mask 22. A deposition source 23 discharged to the; Located on the substrate 21, the cold or hot plate 25 for controlling the temperature of the substrate or the periphery of the substrate; The storage tank 35 for supplying the stored coolant or hot water to the cold plate 25, the control valve 34 for controlling the supply amount of the coolant or hot water, and the supply pipe 32 and the recovery pipe 33, which are channels of the coolant or hot water. ; A temperature sensor 36 for sensing a temperature around the substrate or the substrate; A temperature control unit 37 for controlling the temperature of the cold plate 25 by cooling or heating the water stored in the storage tank 35; And a high vacuum chamber 30.

The cold plate 25 is installed to have an area corresponding to the area of the substrate 21, but is installed to have an area corresponding to the area of the upper surface of the chamber 30 can also be maintained at an appropriate temperature around the edge of the substrate You can change it to do so. In addition, by installing the cold plate 25 to have a length corresponding to the horizontal length or vertical length of the substrate 21 or the chamber 30, by controlling the ambient temperature of the substrate or the substrate moving through the conveyor, temperature, It is also possible to maximize the efficiency of installation and management of the control unit.

Specifically, the thin film deposition apparatus according to the present invention can be used correspondingly to a large substrate of 4.5 generations (730 × 920 mm) or more, preferably 5.5 generations (1300 × 1500 mm) or more, and more preferably 8 generations (2200 × 2500 mm) or more. As such, the cold plate 25 may be installed to correspond to the area or length of the substrate. The size of the chamber 30 may be appropriately designed according to the size and number of substrates accommodated in the chamber, and the cold plate 25 may be installed to correspond to the area or length of the upper surface of the chamber. The shape of the cold plate is not limited as long as it can adjust the temperature of the substrate or the periphery of the substrate, and specifically, may have a plate shape or a cylindrical shape.

On the other hand, the nozzle source having a plurality of nozzles 24 is connected to the deposition source 23, when the deposition material is discharged through the plurality of nozzles can be used to increase the use efficiency of the deposition material. In addition, the cold plate 25 may be installed to have a length corresponding to the horizontal length of the nozzle portion to more effectively control the temperature control of the substrate or the substrate around the deposition surface. The nozzle unit may be changed to adjust the distance to the substrate to increase the deposition efficiency and the film uniformity by adjusting the height of the nozzle unit and the substrate.

The deposition source 23 may be formed of a single crucible, but may be provided as many as the number corresponding to the cold plate 25. In addition, it may be configured in the form of a linear or surface deposition source through a nozzle unit having a plurality of nozzles to cope with the increase in size of the substrate.

The temperature sensor 36 detects a temperature around the substrate or the substrate, and accordingly, the temperature control unit 37 of the temperature controller is configured such that the temperature around the substrate or the substrate is outside the reference temperature range. The cold plate 25 is controlled so that the temperature is within the reference temperature range. In order to induce intensive deposition on the substrate, it is desirable to maintain the temperature of the substrate or the surroundings of the substrate at 70 ° C or lower. When the temperature around the substrate or the substrate exceeds 70 ℃, the random movement of the evaporated organic matter increases, making it difficult to concentrate the deposition of the substrate and the thin film uniformity. On the other hand, by installing a plurality of temperature sensor 36 in the chamber to measure the temperature of the center and the edge of the substrate separately may correspond to the cold plate having a plurality of compartments.

As shown in FIG. 4, the temperature control unit according to the present invention includes a storage tank 41, a supply pipe 42, a recovery pipe 43, a control valve 44, a cold plate 45, and a temperature control unit 46. Can be configured. The cold plate 45 has a single structure having no compartment therein, but as shown in FIG. 5, the cold plate 55 has three portions corresponding to the central portion 55a and both edges 55b of the substrate. It may be divided into compartments to separately supply and control cooling water or hot water. In this case, when the deposition efficiency of the substrate is lower than that of the center portion, the cooling water or the hot water supply of the substrate edge or the center portion may be appropriately adjusted so that a uniform thin film may be formed on the entire substrate. On the other hand, by using the cooled or heated air instead of the cooling water or hot water it is also possible to adjust the temperature of the substrate or the substrate surroundings. In addition, when raising the temperature of the substrate or the periphery of the substrate, the atmosphere temperature inside the chamber may be used without using the temperature control unit.

If the cold plate according to the present invention is to improve the deposition efficiency and the thin film uniformity by efficiently controlling the temperature of the substrate or the substrate surroundings, there is no limitation in the specific chamber position. That is, the cold plate constituting the temperature control unit may be installed on the surface facing the horizontal surface of the substrate according to the bottom-up, top-down or vertical deposition method, but the deposition source is not located. Preferably, the thin film deposition apparatus according to the present invention has a bottom-up structure in which the deposition source is located on the lower surface of the chamber and the cold plate is located on the upper surface of the chamber, and the substrate is disposed between the deposition source and the cold plate.

In the thin film deposition apparatus according to the present invention, at least one deposition source for storing and discharging the deposition material in one chamber; At least one temperature controller installed around the substrate to adjust the temperature of the substrate or the substrate; And a plurality of nozzles connected to the deposition source, and at least one nozzle unit discharged through the plurality of nozzles when the deposition material is discharged may be accommodated. The number of deposition sources, temperature controllers, and nozzles accommodated in one chamber is not particularly limited, and the installation intervals may be determined in consideration of the area of the substrate, the spray area of the nozzles, the number of nozzles, and the like. That is, if the deposition efficiency can be improved by inducing the deposition material to be concentrated on the substrate by preventing the rise of the temperature of the substrate or the surroundings of the substrate and maintaining the proper temperature, it can be installed in an appropriate number considering the production efficiency and manufacturing cost. . Specifically, when there are two or more cold plates accommodated in one chamber, the deposition sources may be provided in a number corresponding to the cold plates, and different deposition materials may be stored in each of the deposition sources.

As illustrated in FIG. 6, the thin film deposition apparatus according to the present invention may have an inline method in which two chambers are continuously connected to each other. The in-line method has high production efficiency and easily copes with large area substrates. In particular, in the in-line type thin film deposition apparatus according to the present invention, it is more preferable that one deposition source and one temperature control unit are accommodated in each chamber, and different deposition materials are stored in the deposition source of each chamber. The thin film deposition apparatus may be configured as a single chamber, or may be configured in a cluster manner in which different chambers are attached to the central chamber in the form of a pentagon or a hexagon to alternately deposit the substrates one by one.

The thin film deposition apparatus according to the present invention is preferably a thin film deposition apparatus for manufacturing an organic light emitting device. Except for using the thin film deposition apparatus according to the present invention, it is possible to manufacture an organic light emitting device according to a conventional manufacturing method. For example, ITO and a metal film are deposited on the cleaned glass substrate by a sputtering method, and then patterned and etched sequentially using a photolithography process to form an anode. After the insulating layer is deposited, patterned and etched using a photolithography process, a cathode separation partition is formed using a shadow mask. Then, each organic material forming the hole transport layer, the light emitting layer, and the electron transport layer of the organic light emitting device is put in a crucible in a high vacuum chamber of the thin film deposition apparatus according to the present invention, and the organic material is evaporated by evaporating the organic material using a heater in the deposition source. Is deposited on one surface of the substrate to form the organic layers one by one. At this time, the temperature control unit prevents the temperature rise around the substrate or the substrate and maintains the proper temperature to induce the organic material to be concentrated on the substrate to improve the deposition efficiency. After the organic material layer is formed, a metal film is deposited using a shadow mask to form a cathode, and an organic light emitting device is completed through an encapsulation process.

21: substrate 22: mask
23: vapor deposition source 24: nozzle
25: cold plate 30: chamber
31: deposition material 32: supply pipe
33: recovery pipe 34: control valve
35: storage tank 36: temperature sensor
37: temperature control unit

Claims (19)

At least one deposition source for storing deposition material and discharging the deposition material to a substrate;
At least one temperature controller installed around the substrate to adjust the temperature of the substrate or the substrate; And
Thin film deposition apparatus comprising at least one chamber for receiving the deposition source and the temperature control unit. The method of claim 1,
The temperature control unit is a cold hot plate located around the substrate; And a temperature control unit for controlling the temperature of the cold plate. The method of claim 2,
The deposition source is located on the lower surface of the chamber, the cold plate is located on the upper surface of the chamber,
And the substrate is disposed between the deposition source and the cold plate. The method according to claim 2 or 3,
And the cold plate is installed to have an area corresponding to the area of the upper surface of the chamber. The method according to claim 2 or 3,
The cold plate is a thin film deposition apparatus, characterized in that installed to have a length corresponding to the horizontal length or vertical length of the chamber. The method according to claim 2 or 3,
And the cold plate is installed to have an area corresponding to that of the substrate. The method according to claim 2 or 3,
The cold plate is a thin film deposition apparatus, characterized in that installed to have a length corresponding to the horizontal length or vertical length of the substrate. The method according to claim 2 or 3,
The deposition source is a thin film deposition apparatus, characterized in that provided with a number corresponding to the cold plate. The method according to claim 2 or 3,
And the temperature control unit cools the cold plate when the temperature is lowered around the substrate or the substrate, and uses an ambient temperature inside the chamber when raising the ambient temperature of the substrate or the substrate. The method according to claim 2 or 3,
And the temperature control unit cools the cold and hot plates when the temperature around the substrate or the substrate is lowered, and heats the cold and hot plates with the temperature control unit when the temperature around the substrate is raised. The method according to claim 2 or 3
The cold plate is composed of a plurality of units thin film deposition apparatus, characterized in that the temperature can be adjusted for each unit. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 3,
Thin film deposition apparatus, characterized in that for maintaining the temperature of the substrate or the substrate surrounding the substrate through the temperature control unit 70 ℃ or less. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 3,
Thin film deposition apparatus further comprises at least one temperature sensor in the chamber to sense the temperature of the substrate or around the substrate. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 3,
And a plurality of nozzles connected to the deposition source, and further comprising at least one nozzle unit discharged through the plurality of nozzles when the deposition material is discharged. 15. The method of claim 14,
The nozzle unit is a thin film deposition apparatus, characterized in that for controlling the distance to the substrate. The method according to claim 2 or 3,
Is provided with a plurality of nozzles connected to the deposition source, and further comprises at least one nozzle portion discharged through the plurality of nozzles when the deposition material is discharged,
And the cold plate is installed to have a length corresponding to the horizontal length of the nozzle unit. 17. The method of claim 16,
The nozzle unit is a thin film deposition apparatus, characterized in that for controlling the distance to the substrate. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 3,
And at least two chambers, each chamber being connected in series to each other in a thin film deposition apparatus, characterized in that the inline (inline) method. The method of claim 18,
The deposition source and the cold plate is accommodated one by one in each chamber, the thin film deposition apparatus, characterized in that different deposition materials are stored in the deposition source of each chamber.

Images