KR20200111917A - Thin layer deposition apparatus and thin layer deposition method - Google Patents

Abstract

A thin film deposition apparatus of the present invention comprises: a chamber having an inner space; a plurality of evaporation sources installed in the inner space of the chamber to heat and spray a deposition material; a transmitting member made of a transparent material, and installed at one part of the chamber; a filming unit located to be adjacent to the transmitting member, and filming particles sprayed from the evaporation sources; and an image processing unit analyzing particle image data filmed by the filming unit to determine whether the particles are evenly sprayed for each area in the inner space of the chamber. Therefore, the state on the inside of the chamber can be checked.

Description

Thin-film deposition apparatus and thin-layer deposition method TECHNICAL FIELD

The present invention relates to a thin film deposition apparatus and a thin film deposition method, and more particularly, to a thin film deposition apparatus and a thin film deposition method that can be used to manufacture semiconductor and organic thin film devices.

Organic Light Emitting Diodes (OLED) uses an electroluminescence phenomenon that emits light when an electric current flows through a fluorescent organic compound, and unlike general liquid crystal displays, it emits light by itself. Since such an organic electroluminescent device does not need a backlight for applying light to a non-light emitting device, a light-weight and thin flat panel display device can be manufactured.

Flat panel display devices using such organic electroluminescent devices are emerging as next-generation display devices due to their fast response speed and wide viewing angle. In particular, since the manufacturing process is simple, there is an advantage that the production cost can be reduced more than that of the existing liquid crystal display device.

In the organic electroluminescent device, the remaining constituent layers, excluding anode and cathode electrodes, such as a hole injection layer, a hole transport layer, a light-emitting layer, an electron transport layer, and an electron injection layer, are made of an organic thin film. Can be deposited on.

The vacuum thermal evaporation method uses an evaporation apparatus, and after placing a substrate in a vacuum chamber, aligning a shadow mask with a certain pattern on the substrate, heat is applied to the evaporation source containing the evaporation material to sublimate from the evaporation source. It is made by depositing an evaporation material on the substrate.

Meanwhile, in a process of depositing an organic thin film on a substrate using a deposition apparatus, the deposition material may not be uniformly deposited on the substrate depending on the position or shape of the nozzle through which the deposition material is sprayed.

To solve this problem, a method of measuring the thickness of the deposited thin film after depositing a deposition material on the substrate may be used, but it may take a lot of time because the thickness of the thin film over the entire substrate must be measured.

In addition, a simulation can be performed to check whether the evaporation material is uniformly deposited, but the simulation result is often different from the actual result. Alternatively, since the entire nozzle must be remanufactured by changing the design of the entire nozzle, a lot of cost and time may be required.

Korean Patent Registration No. 10-1410882

An object of the present invention is to provide a thin film deposition apparatus and a thin film deposition method capable of checking the state of the interior of the chamber.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a thin film deposition apparatus and a thin film deposition method in which a process for uniformly depositing a deposition material on a substrate can be automatically set.

A thin film deposition apparatus according to an aspect of the present invention includes a chamber including an inner space; A plurality of evaporation sources installed in the interior space of the chamber to heat and spray a deposition material; A transmissive member made of a transparent material and installed in a portion of the chamber; A photographing unit positioned adjacent to the transparent member and photographing particles sprayed from the evaporation source; And an image processing unit that analyzes the particle image data captured by the photographing unit and determines whether the particles are uniformly sprayed for each area in the inner space of the chamber.

Meanwhile, the photographing unit may be a thermal imaging camera.

Meanwhile, the image processing unit divides the particle image into a plurality of unit regions having the same number as the plurality of evaporation sources and having the same area, counts the number of particles included in each of the plurality of unit regions, and the unit By comparing the number of particles in each area, a unit area having a relatively small number of particles can be selected.

On the other hand, based on a result determined by the image processing unit may include a control unit for individually controlling the injection amount of the deposition material from each of the plurality of evaporation sources.

Meanwhile, the control unit may increase the amount of particle injection from the evaporation source corresponding to the unit area in which the number of particles is relatively small.

Meanwhile, the material of the transparent member may be glass or polycarbonate, for example.

A thin film deposition method according to an aspect of the present invention includes a particle spray step of spraying particles by heating a deposition material; A photographing step of photographing particles sprayed from the evaporation source; An image analysis step of analyzing particle image data captured in the photographing step to determine whether the particles are uniformly sprayed into the interior space of the chamber; And a control step of individually controlling the injection amount of the deposition material from each of the plurality of evaporation sources based on the result determined by the image processing unit.

On the other hand, the image analysis step may include the step of dividing the particle image into a plurality of unit areas having the same number as the plurality of evaporation sources and having the same area; A particle number measurement step of counting the number of particles included in each of the plurality of unit areas; And comparing the number of particles in each of the unit regions, and selecting a unit region having a relatively small number of particles.

On the other hand, the controlling step may increase the injection amount of particles in the evaporation source corresponding to the unit area having a relatively small number of particles.

In the thin film deposition apparatus according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention, an internal space of a chamber is photographed by a photographing unit, particle image data is processed by an image processing unit, and an evaporation source is controlled by a control unit. Accordingly, as in the prior art, the process of measuring the thickness of the thin film deposited on the substrate to check whether the thin film is uniformly deposited on the substrate, or even if a simulation is not performed, is performed automatically. Can be set to

Therefore, the user does not need to directly perform various processes in order to uniformly deposit the thin film on the substrate, thereby reducing labor costs. In addition, since the process of uniformly spraying the evaporation material from the evaporation source can be monitored in real time, the thickness of the thin film deposited on the substrate can be continuously maintained uniformly.

1 is a block diagram showing a thin film deposition apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.
2 is a diagram showing a particle image photograph taken by the photographing unit.
3 is a diagram illustrating a state in which the particle image photograph of FIG. 2 is divided into a plurality of unit regions.
4 is a view showing a state in which particles are uniformly sprayed as a whole by increasing the spraying amount of a deposition material from a specific evaporation source by a control unit.
5 is a flowchart sequentially illustrating a thin film deposition method according to an embodiment of the present invention.
6 is a flow chart sequentially showing the image analysis steps included in the thin film deposition method of FIG. 5.

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings so that those of ordinary skill in the art may easily implement the present invention. The present invention may be implemented in various different forms and is not limited to the embodiments described herein.

In order to clearly describe the present invention, parts irrelevant to the description have been omitted, and the same reference numerals are assigned to the same or similar components throughout the specification.

In addition, in various embodiments, components having the same configuration will be described only in a representative embodiment by using the same reference numerals, and in other embodiments, only configurations different from the representative embodiment will be described.

Throughout the specification, when a part is said to be "connected" with another part, this includes not only the case of being "directly connected", but also being "indirectly connected" with another member therebetween. In addition, when a part "includes" a certain component, it means that other components may be further included rather than excluding other components unless specifically stated to the contrary.

Unless otherwise defined, all terms used herein, including technical or scientific terms, have the same meaning as commonly understood by one of ordinary skill in the art to which the present invention belongs. Terms as defined in a commonly used dictionary should be interpreted as having a meaning consistent with the meaning in the context of the related technology, and should not be interpreted as an ideal or excessively formal meaning unless explicitly defined in this application. Does not.

Referring to FIG. 1, a thin film deposition apparatus 100 according to an embodiment of the present invention includes a chamber 110, an evaporation source 120, a transmission member 160, a photographing unit 130, and an image processing unit 140. do.

The chamber 110 includes an inner space. A substrate transferred from the outside may be mounted on the upper side of the inner space of the chamber 110. A door (not shown) that can be used to enter and exit the substrate may be installed in the chamber 110. The chamber 110 may be formed of a hexahedron, and may be divided into upper and lower portions, but is not limited thereto.

The evaporation source 120 is installed in the inner space of the chamber 110 to heat and spray the deposition material. The evaporation source 120 may be plural. The evaporation source 120 may be installed on the bottom surface of the chamber 110. Since the chamber 110 and the evaporation source 120 may be a chamber and an evaporation source included in a general thin film deposition apparatus, detailed descriptions thereof will be omitted.

The transmission member 160 is made of a transparent material and is installed in a part of the chamber 110. There may be one or more transmission members 160. When there are a plurality of transmissive members 160, the transmissive members 160 may be installed on each side of the chamber 110.

The material of the transparent member 160 may be glass or polycarbonate (PC), for example, but is not limited thereto. It may be desirable that the thickness and size of the permeable member 160 be such that it may not be deformed against vacuum. The transparent member 160 may expose the inner space of the chamber 110 to the outside.

The photographing unit 130 is positioned adjacent to the transmission member 160 and photographs particles sprayed from the evaporation source 120. The photographing unit 130 may be, for example, a thermal imaging camera. Since the particles are in a vaporized state, the temperature is relatively higher than the surrounding area.

In general, the thermal imaging camera includes a thermal imaging sensor implemented in the form of a two-dimensional matrix. Such a thermal imaging camera may generate a particle image by photographing the inner space of the chamber 110. The generated particle image data (refer to FIG. 2) may be transmitted to the image processing unit 140 to be described later.

Meanwhile, when a user checks the particle image data generated by the thermal imaging camera with a display device not shown, the thermal imaging camera may differently output colors for each temperature in the particle image data. For example, in particle image data, if the temperature is 5℃ or lower, it is displayed in blue, for 5~20℃, it is light blue, for 20~40℃, it is orange, for 40~60℃, it is yellow, and for 60~100℃, it is red. Can be displayed. Accordingly, the vaporized particles may be displayed in red in the particle image data because they have a relatively higher temperature than the peripheral part.

The image processing unit 140 analyzes the particle image data photographed by the photographing unit 130. The image processing unit 140 determines whether the particles are uniformly sprayed for each area in the inner space of the chamber 110. As described above, the image processing unit 140 may measure the number of particles indicated in red in the particle image data.

The operation process of the image processing unit 140 will be described in detail. As shown in FIG. 3, the image processing unit 140 divides the particle image into a plurality of unit regions having the same number as the plurality of evaporation sources 120A, 120B, 120C, and 120D and having the same area. For example, when there are four evaporation sources 120, the image processing unit 140 may divide the particle image into four unit areas. That is, the particle image may be divided into unit regions so that the number of the evaporation sources 120 is the same as the number.

Next, the image processing unit 140 counts the number of particles included in each of the plurality of unit areas. For example, when a particle image is divided into 4 unit areas, the number of particles in each of the 4 unit areas can be measured in particle image data.

Finally, the image processing unit 140 may compare the number of particles in each of the unit regions and select a unit region having a relatively small number of particles. For example, when the number of particles measured in four unit regions is 100, 100, 80, and 100, respectively, the third unit region may be selected as a unit region with a small number of particles.

Meanwhile, the thin film deposition apparatus 100 according to an embodiment of the present invention may include a control unit 150.

The control unit 150 individually controls the injection amount of the deposition material from each of the plurality of evaporation sources 120A, 120B, 120C, and 120D based on the result determined by the image processing unit 140. In more detail, the control unit 150 may increase the injection amount of particles in the evaporation source 120 corresponding to the unit area in which the number of particles is relatively small.

For example, as described above, when the third unit region is selected to have a small number of particles, the voltage or current supplied to the third evaporation source 120C among a plurality of evaporation sources 120A, 120B, 120C, and 120D may be increased. . Accordingly, as shown in FIG. 4, particles can be sprayed in a substantially similar number from each of the evaporation sources 120A, 120B, 120C, and 120D. Therefore, by uniformly spraying the deposition material onto the substrate, a thin film can be uniformly generated on the substrate.

Returning to FIG. 1, the thin film deposition apparatus 100 according to an embodiment of the present invention described above photographs the inner space of the chamber 110 with the photographing unit 130, and transmits particle image data to the image processing unit 140. Processing, and the evaporation source 120 can be controlled by the control unit 150. Accordingly, as in the prior art, the process of measuring the thickness of the thin film deposited on the substrate to check whether the thin film is uniformly deposited on the substrate, or even if a simulation is not performed, is performed automatically. Can be set to

Therefore, the user does not need to directly perform various processes in order to uniformly deposit the thin film on the substrate, thereby reducing labor costs. In addition, since the process of uniformly spraying the deposition material from the evaporation source 120 can be monitored in real time, the thickness of the thin film deposited on the substrate can be continuously maintained uniformly.

5, a thin film deposition method (S100) according to an embodiment of the present invention is a thin film deposition method (S100) for depositing a thin film on a substrate with the aforementioned thin film deposition apparatus, and a particle spraying step (S110), a photographing step It may include (S120), image analysis step (S130), and control step (S140).

In the particle spraying step (S110), the deposition material is heated to spray particles. When the evaporation source is operated, particles may be sprayed while the evaporation material is evaporated from the evaporation source.

In the photographing step S120, particles sprayed from the evaporation source are photographed. As described above, the photographing unit may photograph the inner space of the chamber through the transparent member.

In the image analysis step (S130), it is determined whether or not the particles are uniformly sprayed into the inner space of the chamber by analyzing the particle image data captured in the photographing step (S120). A detailed description of the image analysis step S130 will be described later.

In the control step (S140), an injection amount of the deposition material from each of the plurality of evaporation sources is individually controlled based on a result determined by the image processing unit. In more detail, in the control step (S140), the amount of spraying of particles may be increased or decreased by changing the size of the voltage or current supplied to the evaporation source to adjust the temperature of the heater, not shown.

Referring to FIG. 6, the above-described image analysis step (S130) may include, for example, a region division step (S131), a particle count measurement step (S132), and a region selection step (S133).

In the region dividing step S131, the particle image may be divided into a plurality of unit regions having the same number as the plurality of evaporation sources and having the same area. For example, when there are three evaporation sources, the image processing unit may divide the particle image into three unit areas.

In the step of measuring the number of particles (S132), the number of particles included in each of the plurality of unit regions may be counted. For example, when a particle image is divided into 4 unit areas, the number of particles in each of the 4 unit areas can be measured in particle image data.

In the region selection step S133, a unit region having a relatively small number of particles may be selected by comparing the number of particles in each of the unit regions. Thereafter, in the controlling step (S140), an amount of spraying of particles from an evaporation source corresponding to a unit area having a relatively small number of particles may be increased. Accordingly, while the deposition material is vaporized from each of the plurality of evaporation sources and uniformly sprayed against the substrate, the particle spraying step S110 may be performed again.

Each step of the thin film deposition method S100 according to an embodiment of the present invention has been described in detail while explaining the operation of the thin film deposition apparatus described above, and thus a description thereof will be omitted.

In FIG. 6, the step of measuring the number of particles (S132) has been described, but the image analysis method of the present invention is not limited thereto. For example, various image processing methods may be used, such as determining the amount of evaporation from each of the plurality of evaporation sources through color analysis of each divided region in the region classification step S131.

Meanwhile, the thin film deposition method (S100) according to an embodiment of the present invention described above may be applied to a process of depositing a deposition material on an actual substrate, or a process of setting a thin film deposition apparatus before depositing the deposition material on an actual substrate. It may also be possible to apply to. However, when the thin film deposition method S100 according to an embodiment of the present invention is applied to the process of setting the thin film deposition apparatus, it is possible to prevent the substrate from being wasted because the thin film is not uniformly deposited on the substrate.

Although various embodiments of the present invention have been described above, the drawings referenced so far and the detailed description of the described invention are merely illustrative of the present invention, which are used only for the purpose of describing the present invention, and are limited in meaning or claims. It is not used to limit the scope of the invention described in the range. Therefore, those of ordinary skill in the art will understand that various modifications and equivalent other embodiments are possible therefrom. Therefore, the true technical protection scope of the present invention should be determined by the technical spirit of the appended claims.

100: thin film deposition apparatus
110: chamber
120: evaporation source
130: shooting unit
140: image processing unit
150: control unit
160: transparent member

Claims (9)

A chamber including an inner space;
A plurality of evaporation sources installed in the interior space of the chamber to heat and spray a deposition material;
At least one transmissive member made of a transparent material and installed in a portion of the chamber;
A photographing unit positioned adjacent to the transparent member and photographing particles sprayed from the evaporation source; And
And an image processing unit that analyzes the particle image data captured by the photographing unit and determines whether the particles are uniformly sprayed for each area in the inner space of the chamber. The method of claim 1,
The photographing unit is a thin film deposition apparatus that is a thermal imaging camera. The method of claim 1,
The image processing unit,
Dividing the particle image into a plurality of unit regions having the same number as the plurality of evaporation sources and having the same area,
Counting the number of particles included in each of the plurality of unit areas,
A thin film deposition apparatus for selecting a unit region having a relatively small number of particles by comparing the number of particles in each of the unit regions. The method of claim 3,
A thin film deposition apparatus comprising a control unit for individually controlling an injection amount of the deposition material from each of the plurality of evaporation sources based on a result determined by the image processing unit. The method of claim 4,
The control unit,
A thin film deposition apparatus for increasing a particle injection amount from an evaporation source corresponding to a unit area having a relatively small number of particles. The method of claim 1,
The material of the transparent member is, for example, glass or polycarbonate thin film deposition apparatus. In the thin film deposition method of depositing a thin film on a substrate with the thin film deposition apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 6,
Particle spraying step of heating the deposition material to spray particles;
A photographing step of photographing particles sprayed from the evaporation source;
An image analysis step of analyzing particle image data captured in the photographing step to determine whether the particles are uniformly sprayed into the interior space of the chamber; And
And a control step of individually controlling the injection amount of the deposition material from each of the plurality of evaporation sources based on a result determined by the image processing unit. The method of claim 7,
The image analysis step,
An area dividing step of dividing the particle images into a plurality of unit areas having the same number as the plurality of evaporation sources and having the same area;
A particle number measurement step of counting the number of particles included in each of the plurality of unit areas; And
Comprising a region selection step of comparing the number of particles in each of the unit regions and selecting a unit region having a relatively small number of particles. The method of claim 8,
The control step,
A thin film deposition method for increasing a particle injection amount from an evaporation source corresponding to a unit area having a relatively small number of particles.

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