KR20140145383A - Inline Type OLED Face Up Evaporator for large size OLED - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to a high vacuum downward evaporation chamber having a structure for preventing generation of a particle. In the evaporation chamber, a substrate and a mask recess are formed above a tray, and a plurality of support pins are attached below the tray and are in contact with a roller to support a load of the tray. The tray is enabled to make a linear movement upon receiving rotary power of a motor to thus prevent generation of a particle and the tray is transferred. Since a particle generated in the roller is differentially pumped with an isolation wall interposed therebetween, whereby the particle is prevented from approaching the substrate. The substrate is transferred in a state in which generation of a particle is prevented, and a plurality of downward linear evaporation sources are fixed to an upper portion of the chamber, whereby a plurality of organic thin films are formed by transferring the substrate once, thus enhancing productivity of an organic device, and here, productivity of the organic device can be double by using a dual evaporator having two trays. Also, a plurality of chambers are connected linearly to form inline, allowing for continuous process on a multilayer organic thin film and a metal thin film, enhancing productivity.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an inline type large area OLED

The present invention relates to a top-down linear evaporation source for mass production of an OLED (Organic Lighting Emission Display) thin film having a large area (8th to 11th generation), a top-down evaporator using the substrate and a mask aligning apparatus, and more particularly, A very thin glass substrate or the like is placed on a substrate tray that is transported from the bottom of the chamber so that the substrate is not sagged so as to significantly improve the mass productivity of the substrate. A plurality of downward linear evaporation sources are formed in the upper part of the chamber in a chamber of a high vacuum atmosphere to prevent generation of particles due to the transport operation of the substrate tray and to prevent contamination of the organic thin film, By installing the feed roller device and installing a separation wall, differential pumping A top-down evaporator that mass-produces a large-area organic thin film by preventing the generation of particles, inducing evaporation of the organic gas downward, transporting the substrate mask with no deflection typical, and depositing organic substances on the substrate To a substrate transfer apparatus in which particles are prevented from being generated, and to an inline type dual deposition apparatus in which productivity is further improved.

The OLED display is not only a post LCD display but also a surface emitting device for illumination, and its energy efficiency and low cost have been proved worldwide. As a key process technology of an OLED light emitting device, a thermal evaporation deposition process in which an organic light emitting material is vaporized by vaporization and deposited on a glass substrate in a high vacuum state to produce an organic thin film is mainly used.

The thermal evaporation process is a source for evaporating organic matter, a substrate tray for fixing the evaporation source and the substrate, which is an induction evaporation device by thermal radiation, a shadow mask device for manufacturing the patterning, and a QCM A multi-point sensor or the like is used in the high vacuum chamber.

Especially recently, in order to lower the unit cost of the OLED product, there has been a need for a technique of manufacturing a larger size of a substrate, followed by cutting a small piece into several pieces. For example, if an organic thin film is formed by depositing a 4th generation or a 5th generation substrate and cut to 2 inch or 4 inch according to the application, the productivity is improved and the manufacturing cost is lowered. However, recently, in order to mass-produce OLED TVs of large size (55 inches or more), an 8th generation (2200 mm × 2500 mm) glass substrate is used. At this time, since the thickness of the glass substrate is about 0.7 mm, It is very easy to break.

As shown in FIG. 1, a conceptual diagram of the inside of a conventional evaporator when upwardly depositing an organic thin film on a glass substrate 1 of a level of 8th generation or more is shown in FIG. 1, and a linear bottom- , And the organic matter is evaporated by induction heating by the radiant heat upward. The substrate chuck device is placed on the upper part of the chamber to prevent the substrate from being sagged. The edge of the substrate is an IC circuit connection part. To prevent evaporation, an open mask 2 is used and a mask chucking mask And a clamping device is used so that the chuck and the substrate are aligned with each other. The problem is that since the chuck device for transferring a substrate has a capacity of 800 kg or more and 1.5 tons or so, the apparatus is very expensive and the roller device for transferring a heavy device is too heavy to reduce the durability of the equipment, .

In order to solve this problem, it is necessary to develop a top-down evaporator which prevents substrate deflection, and in particular, a special and highly controversial large-sized OLED thin film which suppresses generation of particles generated by a transferring device, Development of vapor deposition substrate transport system is urgent, and new concept deposition technology is emerging as a world-class competitive technology, but no successful case has been reported yet.

In the conventional high vacuum deposition chamber, a roller device is used for transferring the substrate. At this time, particles caused by friction generated by the roller are landed on the substrate, and the organic thin film is contaminated, and the luminous efficiency of the device is lowered. That is, development of a technique of a top-down high vacuum deposition chamber, in which particles due to substrate transfer must be prevented, is a challenge.

To prevent the generation of the particles, the present invention attempts to utilize differential pumping. That is, the trays can ride on the conveying rollers to enable linear motion and to prevent the generation of particles due to roller friction. Further, in order to lighten the load of the substrate tray, a supporting portion is attached to the lower portion of the tray to support the load. Differential pumping will be attempted by installing a separation wall to prevent microscopic particles that may occur between the tray support pin and the roller from approaching the substrate.

According to the present invention, a roller device for transferring a substrate formed in a high vacuum top-down OLED deposition chamber is invented, and the generation of particles due to friction between the tray and the roller is prevented, thereby preventing contamination of the organic thin film by the particles Thereby improving the production yield of the organic device.

FIG. 1 is a conceptual diagram schematically showing a bottom-up evaporator for depositing a conventional OLED thin film
2 is a schematic diagram illustrating the lateral internal structure of a top-down OLED evaporator;
3 is a schematic diagram illustrating the internal cross-sectional structure of a top-down OLED vapor deposition apparatus;
4 is a schematic view showing a configuration in which a top-down linear evaporation source of a top-down OLED mass production evaporator is arranged in a row
5 is a schematic view of a dual evaporator capable of changing the position of an evaporation source capable of alternately depositing a dual substrate,
Fig. 6 is a conceptual view of a clustered evaporator in which particle generation using a dual evaporator is prevented, and OLED elements are fabricated
7 is a conceptual view of a linear evaporator in which the generation of particles using a dual evaporator is prevented and the OLED device is manufactured
8 is a conceptual diagram showing a top-down deposition line for mass production of a turn-key, in which a substrate loading chamber, a TM chamber, a plasma pretreatment chamber, a linear deposition chamber, a metal deposition chamber,
FIG. 9 is a cross-sectional view of a substrate loading chamber, a TM chamber, a tray chamber, an organic mask chamber, a linear deposition chamber, an organic mask out chamber, a metal mask chamber, a metal deposition chamber, a metal mask out chamber, A conceptual diagram showing an inline top-down deposition line for mass production of turnkeys in which unloading chambers are connected in series to produce organic devices
10 is a conceptual diagram showing the structure of the fine mask, the aligner and the mask holder at the bottom of the bottom-down linear evaporation source
11 is a conceptual view of a frame fine mask having an array of fine holes

As shown in FIG. 2, two or more top-down linear evaporation sources 11 are fixed in the upper part of the interior of the high vacuum chamber 10, and organic substances are evaporated downward. The groove of the mask frame 14 and the groove of the substrate are formed on the upper part of the substrate tray 17 so that the tray and the substrate 16 and the mask 15 can be transported as one body and evaporation deposition is possible on the substrate. A support pin (20) is attached to a lower portion of the tray, and the tray is transported linearly along the transport roller (21). A plurality of mask aligners 12 are formed on the upper left side of the chamber and a mask holding bar 13 is attached to the inside of the chamber so that the mask frame 14 is held on the holding bar, The mask can be separated from the mask and the alignment function of the mask and the substrate can be performed.

3 shows a cross-sectional view of a top-down high vacuum deposition chamber 10. A plurality of pumping ports 23 are formed on the side surface of the chamber, and the high vacuum pump is installed symmetrically. A plurality of tray supporting pins 20 are attached to the lower portion of the tray 17, and these pins are supported by the rollers. That is, since the load of the tray is supported by the support pin, the weight of the tray can be reduced. Further, the support pin is adapted to penetrate the holes formed in the partition wall 22, and differential pumping is possible with the partition wall therebetween. That is, the pumping ports 23 are formed up and down with respect to the separation wall. As a result, the generation of particles due to friction is prevented, so that the generation of particles due to transportation in the high vacuum deposition chamber can be prevented, and a high-performance organic thin film can be manufactured. In this case, the smaller the size of the hole formed in the separating wall is, the smaller the better (for example, about 1 cm). That is, a particle particle having a sufficiently long mean free path (about 100 m or more) So that particles caused by friction generated on the roller surface are prevented from entering the substrate and sticking to the substrate. That is, there is an effect of preventing generation of particles. Although three support pins are shown in Fig. 2, a larger number of support pins may be provided depending on the size of the tray. In this way, the large tray can be kept lightweight without sagging.

An evaporation source shutter 24 is formed at a lower portion of the top-down evaporation source, a fixed deposition-blocking portion 25 is formed at a lower portion thereof, and a substrate shutter 26 is provided under the deposition- The evaporation source shutter and the substrate shutter can be moved right and left to have a function of turning off evaporation and deposition. An opening having a predetermined area is formed at the center of the deposition blocking portion to define a deposition surface to be deposited on the substrate.

4 shows a top-down linear evaporation source 51 for manufacturing an organic thin film for a HIL thin film, a bottom-type linear evaporation source for HTL, an EML, an HBL, an ETL, and an EIL on a separator wall 55, And the tray 52 on which the mask frame 54 and the substrate 53 are placed is linearly transported under the evaporation source in the lower portion of the chamber portion so that the evaporated organic substances are deposited on the substrate , An organic thin film is formed. A tray support surface 56 is formed at the bottom of the tray. For reference, the separating wall is not shown in Fig. When a plurality of top-down linear evaporation sources are provided in this manner, all necessary evaporation sources are installed in one chamber at once, and the substrate is transferred once, thereby depositing a desired number of organic thin films. . Conventionally, only one evaporation source is installed in one chamber, and a very large number of chambers are required, so that equipment is expensive and productivity is low. The EML thin film consists mainly of the evaporation source of the host material and the evaporation source of the dopant, so that the evaporation process is performed with two or more evaporation sources. In the case of One Host, Two Dopant, three evaporation sources are also required.

5 shows a dual deposition chamber 30 in which two trays 32 and 33 are formed in one high vacuum deposition chamber and two substrates 35 and 36 are introduced. A central separation wall 34 is formed between the trays to separate the two trays. At the upper part of the chamber, a source conveying device 37 for conveying the top-down evaporation source 31 to the left and right is formed. That is, when the substrate 1 is deposited, the substrate 2 is introduced to perform alignment with the mask, and when the deposition of the substrate 1 is completed, the evaporation source is transferred to the substrate 2 to deposit the substrate 2, The next step is performed, and the new substrate 1 is introduced again, aligned with the mask, and is waiting for deposition. By doing so, the productivity is improved by twice as much as that of the conventional method, and the material utilization ratio of the evaporation source is also doubled.

A plurality of dual deposition chambers 101, 102 and 103 are provided and a cathode metal deposition chamber 104, a substrate loading chamber 100, an unloading chamber 106, a plasma pretreatment chamber 105, And shows a state of the mass production apparatus in which the manufacture of the organic thin film is improved in a clustered manner in the hexagonal robot chamber 110. An arm robot, which is a vacuum robot 111, is installed in the robot chamber 110, so that introduction of the substrate is smooth. In the dual deposition chamber, two substrates 107 and 108 are alternately introduced and deposition is possible. In the cathode metal deposition chamber, two rotary tables 112 and 113 are formed so that the metal thin film can be formed as a downward-flow metal evaporation source while rotating the substrate. Particularly, in order to improve the productivity in mass production of OLED devices, a plurality of clustered chambers are connected in a line.

7, the loading chamber 120 of the substrate, the plasma pretreatment chamber 121, the plurality of dual deposition chambers 122, 123 and 124, the metal deposition chamber 125 and the unloading chamber 126 are connected to the robot chamber 129 of the linear structure And introduces the substrate into each of the chambers by using the arm robot 128 placed on the robot transfer device 127. Mass production, when a large number of these types of equipment are connected, increases productivity.

8 shows a substrate loading chamber 130, a transfer module (TM) chamber 131, a plasma pretreatment chamber 132, a TM chamber 133, a linear deposition chamber 134, a TM chamber 135, a metal deposition chamber 136, a TM chamber 137, and a substrate unloading chamber 138 are connected in series. Inside the substrate loading chamber or the substrate unloading chamber, a cassette for mounting a plurality of substrates is installed, and a vacuum robot is installed in the TM chamber to transfer substrates one by one to a neighboring chamber. In the linear deposition chamber, mask holders 140 for arranging and releasing the mask are installed on the upper left and right sides of the chamber, and the tray on which the mask and the substrate are placed is linearly transported so that a multilayer organic thin film is deposited continuously downward. In the upper part of the linear deposition chamber, a plurality of downward-oriented linear evaporation sources 141 are arranged in an array in an array, so that the desired organic gas is simultaneously evaporated downward. The substrate on which the deposition is completed is detached from the tray and transferred to the metal deposition chamber, which is the next process, by the robot. The tray from which the substrate is removed may be returned to the origin by linear movement in the linear deposition chamber, but is returned through the return chamber 142 for continuous deposition of the next tray for productivity. In the return chamber, if necessary, an additional device can be installed in which the mask and the tray can be cleaned or cleaned. At the top of the metal deposition chamber, two or more top-down point source chambers 139 are provided, which alternately may be used to refill the material when the material of the source falls, and the substrate is placed on the substrate rotation table 143 Since the metal thin film is deposited while rotating, uniformity of the thin film can be secured even in the case of a large area. The use of such turn-key inline equipment has the effect of reducing the initial equipment cost by constructing mass production equipments with the minimum number of high vacuum chambers.

Fig. 9 shows a large-area OLED inline top-down evaporator for turn-key, in which the generation of particles is prevented. A substrate loading chamber 150, a TM chamber 151, a tray-in chamber 152, a chamber 153 that is an organic mask, a linear deposition chamber 154, an organic mask out chamber 155, The metal deposition chamber 157, the metal mask out chamber 158, the trap layout chamber 159, the TM chamber 160 and the substrate unloading chamber 161 are linearly connected to each other with a gate valve interposed therebetween . An organic mask return chamber 162 is connected between the organic masque chamber and the organic masque out chamber so that the organic mask already used is detached from the tray and returned. The chamber which is the metal mask and the metal mask out chamber are connected to the metal mask return chamber 163 so that the metal mask already used is detached from the tray and returned. The tray-in chamber and the tray layout chamber are connected to each other by the tray return chamber 164, and the tray already used is returned and reused.

In the substrate loading and unloading chambers, a substrate cassette is installed for loading a plurality of substrates, and the vacuum robot installed in the TM chamber transfers the substrate to a neighboring process chamber by up-down motion. A tray is placed in the tray-in chamber, the substrate is placed above the tray, and transported by the transport roller to the organic mask chamber. The organic mask is pinned and placed over the tray, and is aligned with the substrate. That is, the mask, the substrate, and the tray are linearly transported, and the organic material ejected from the top-down linear evaporation source arranged in a line in the linear deposition chamber is deposited to continuously form the organic thin film of the multilayer. When the organic deposition is completed and transferred to the organic mask out chamber, the organic mask is detached and returned, and the metal mask is aligned. When the metal thin film deposition is completed, the metal mask is released, the substrate is loaded on the cassette of the unloading chamber by the robot, and the tray is returned. In this way, large-area OLED elements are mass-produced in-line continuously. In the metal deposition chamber, a top-down point evaporation source is arranged or a top-down linear evaporation source is installed to deposit a thin film of a top-down metal (Al, Ag, etc.). In particular, unlike the conventional bottom-up type inline equipment, there is no inversion function of the substrate, there is no sagging of the substrate, no substrate chucking function, and thus the productivity is greatly improved. Particularly, when the substrate tray is transferred from the tray-in chamber to the tray-out chamber, fine particles generated from the support pins of the tray supported by the roller are pumped by the separation wall and differential pumping so that the particles are prevented from approaching the substrate And thus the organic thin film mass production equipment in which particle contamination is prevented is completed.

10 shows a structure in which a fine mask 183 is installed at a height of a certain distance below the bottom-down linear evaporation source 11. In FIG. The fine mask is an array of fine holes 185 formed in the longitudinal direction and fixed to the fine mask frame 184 and is shown in FIG. The fine mask frame is fixed and fixed to the chamber by fine mask aligners 180 and 181 and a mask holder 182, and is configured to enable fine alignment with the substrate. When the substrate tray for transferring the substrate linearly transports the lower portion of the linear evaporation source, organic thin films passing through the fine holes are formed on the substrate in the form of a strip-shaped patterned thin film to form pixel patterns. Further, since it is not necessary to produce a large-size mask, deflection of the mask does not occur, and a mask chuck is not necessary. The distance between the fine mask and the substrate is kept to be very small (e.g., 10 to 20 탆) to form a strip pattern having a fine width, thereby making it possible to manufacture a full color organic thin film.

1: substrate 2: frame mask
3: bottom-up evaporative source
10: deposition chamber 11: top-down linear evaporation source
12: mask aligner 13: mask holding bar
14: mask frame 15: mask
16: substrate 17: tray
18: evaporation source shutter
20: tray support pin 21: roller
22: separating wall 23: pumping port
24: evaporation source shutter 25: fixed deposition evaporation portion
26: Substrate shutter
30: dual deposition chamber 31: top down linear evaporation source
32: Tray 1 33: Tray 2
34: central separating wall 35: substrate 1
36: substrate 2 37: evaporation source transfer device
38: Feed roller 39: Feed roller
50: deposition chamber 51: top-down linear evaporation source
52: substrate tray 53: substrate
54: mask 55: separator wall
56: tray supporting surface
100: substrate loading chamber 101: OLED dual deposition chamber 1
102: OLED dual deposition chamber 2 103: OLED dual deposition chamber 3
104: cathodal metal dual deposition chamber 105: plasma pretreatment chamber
106: unloading chamber 107: substrate 1
108: substrate 2 109: top-down linear evaporation source
110: 7 rectangular robot chamber 111: Arm Robot
112: rotary table 1 113: rotary table 2
120: Loading chamber 121 Plasma pretreatment chamber
122: HIL / HTL dual deposition chamber 123: EML dual deposition chamber
124: ETL dual deposition chamber 125: EIL / Al dual deposition chamber
126: Unloading chamber 127: Robot transfer device
128: Arm robot 129: Robot chamber
130: substrate loading chamber 131: TM chamber
132: plasma pretreatment chamber 133: TM chamber
134: Linear deposition chamber 135: TM chamber
136: metal deposition chamber 137: TM chamber
138: Substrate unloading chamber 139: Top-down point source chamber
140: mask holder 141: top-down linear evaporator source
142: return chamber 143: substrate rotating table
150: substrate loading chamber 151: TM chamber
152: Tray-in chamber 153: chamber which is organic mask
154: Linear deposition chamber 155: Organic mask out chamber
156: chamber which is a metal mask 157: metal deposition chamber
158: metal mask out chamber 159: trap layout chamber
160: TM chamber 161: substrate unloading chamber
162: organic mask return chamber 163: metal mask return chamber
164: tray return chamber
180: Fine mask aligner 181: Fine mask aligner
182: mask holder 183: fine mask
184: Fine mask frame 185: Fine hole

Claims (29)

There is a tray in which two or more mask aligners are attached to the upper part of the high vacuum deposition chamber, a mask holding bar is connected thereto, and mask grooves and substrate grooves are formed. A support pin is attached to the lower part of the tray, A large-area OLED top-down evaporator
The large-area OLED top-down evaporator of claim 1, wherein a plurality of transport roller devices are arranged
The large-area OLED top-down evaporator according to claim 1, wherein a frame mask and a substrate are placed on top of the tray,
The large-area OLED top-down evaporator according to claim 1, wherein the rotating rollers are formed at a predetermined distance on the rotating shaft
The large-area OLED top-down evaporator according to claim 1, wherein the top-down linear evaporation source is fixed to an upper portion of the chamber, and a plurality of tray supporting pins are formed in a lower portion of the chamber,
[6] The large-area OLED top-down evaporator according to claim 5, wherein at least two support pins are attached to a lower portion of the substrate tray
6. The large-area OLED top-down evaporator of claim 5, wherein the support pins of the substrate tray are supported on the upper surface of the roller.
[6] The large-area OLED top-down evaporator according to claim 5, wherein a pumping port is formed in the chamber at a lower portion with respect to the partition wall,
The large-area OLED top-down method according to claim 5, characterized in that a plurality of top-down linear evaporation sources are mounted on top of the chamber in a row with a separator wall interposed therebetween, and a substrate tray carrying the substrate and the mask is linearly transferred, Evaporator
Characterized in that a top-down evaporation source transfer device is formed on top of the high vacuum chamber, two substrates are stackable and two substrate trays are formed with a central partition wall therebetween.
A dual cathode metallization chamber, a plasma pretreatment chamber, a loading chamber, and an unloading chamber are clustered with a polygonal vacuum robot chamber at the center,
Characterized in that the dual helium, plasma pretreatment chamber, cathodic metal deposition, loading chamber, unloading chambers are linearly connected to a robotic chamber of a rectangular parallelepiped structure.
The robot according to claim 12, characterized in that the arm robot is placed on the robot transfer device
Large area OLED top-down evaporator
The large-area OLED top-down evaporator according to claim 1, wherein an evaporation source shutter, a fixed evaporation closure, and a substrate shutter are formed under the top-down evaporation source, and the evaporation source shutter and the substrate shutter can be moved right-
A substrate loading chamber, a TM chamber, a pretreatment chamber, a TM chamber, a linear deposition chamber, a TM chamber, a metal deposition chamber, a TM chamber and an unloading chamber are connected in series and a return chamber is connected to the linear deposition chamber Large-area OLED top-down evaporator
16. The large-area OLED top-down evaporator according to claim 15, wherein the return chamber functions to return the tray and the mask.
16. The large-area OLED top-down evaporator of claim 15, wherein the return chamber serves to clean trays and masks.
16. The large-area OLED top-down evaporator of claim 15, wherein at least two top-point source chambers are formed in the upper portion of the metal deposition chamber, and a substrate rotation table is formed in the lower portion of the metal deposition chamber.
A substrate loading chamber, a TM chamber, a tray chamber, an organic mask chamber, a linear deposition chamber, an organic mask out chamber, a metal mask chamber, a metal deposition chamber, a metal mask out chamber, a trap layout chamber, a TM chamber, Wherein a tray return chamber is connected to the chamber which is a tray, an organic mask return chamber is connected to the chamber which is an organic mask, and a metal mask return chamber is connected to the chamber which is a metal mask OLED Inline top-down evaporator
21. The large-area OLED inline top-down evaporator of claim 19, wherein a substrate cassette is mounted within the substrate loading and unloading chamber to effect up-down motion.
21. The large-area OLED inline top-down evaporator of claim 19, wherein the substrate tray is mounted in the tray in /
The large-area OLED in-line down-type evaporator according to claim 19, wherein an open mask for forming an organic thin film is mounted on the organic mask in /
The large-area OLED inline top-down type evaporator according to claim 19, characterized in that an open mask for forming a metal thin film is mounted on the metal mask in /
The large-area OLED inline top-down evaporator according to claim 19, wherein a plurality of linear and point evaporation sources for forming a top-down metal thin film are mounted in the metal deposition chamber
The large-area OLED inline top-down type evaporator according to claim 19, wherein the TM chamber is mounted with a robot arm for vacuum
21. The method of claim 19, wherein an electromagnetic coil device and a tray guide device are mounted in the tray in / out chamber, the organic mask in / out chamber, the linear deposition chamber, the metal mast in / Is transferred in a linear motion. The large-area OLED in-line top-down evaporator
A large-area OLED inline top-down type evaporator characterized in that fine mask aligners and mask holders are arranged below the top-down linear evaporation source to position the mask in the longitudinal direction of the evaporation source and the fine mask and the substrate are micro-
27. The large-area OLED inline top-down evaporator of claim 26, wherein the fine mask is fixed to the frame with a fine mask having an array of a plurality of fine holes and the arrangement of the fine holes is arranged in the longitudinal direction of the down-
27. The large-area OLED inline top-down type evaporator according to claim 26, wherein the strip-like organic pattern thin film is formed on the substrate by linearly transferring the substrate tray at a predetermined distance below the fine mask,

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