KR20210085415A - Thin film deposition apparatus and method - Google Patents

Abstract

An apparatus for depositing a thin film of the present disclosure includes: a chamber member including a processing space in which a substrate is processed; an evaporation source installed in the processing space of the chamber member to heat and vaporize a deposition material; an evaporation amount control sensor installed adjacent to the evaporation source to measure a thickness of a thin film generated on a surface so as to detect an evaporated amount per hour of the evaporation material from the evaporation source; a control unit receiving thin film thickness information from the evaporation amount control sensor to control the evaporation amount per hour of the deposition material evaporated from the evaporation source so as to be a target value; and an evaporation amount correction sensor installed to be spaced apart from the evaporation source to measure the amount of change in the thickness of the thin film generated on the surface, and transmit the measured change amount (ΔM) of the thickness of the thin film to the control unit, such that the control unit controls the evaporation source based on the received change amount (ΔM) of the thickness of the thin film.

Description

Thin film deposition apparatus and thin film deposition method

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 a display panel.

In general, in manufacturing an organic device (OLED: Organic Light Emitted Device), the most important process is a process of generating an organic thin film on a substrate, and vacuum deposition is mainly used to generate such an organic thin film.

In such vacuum deposition, an evaporation source such as a point source containing a substrate such as glass and a powder type deposition material is placed in a chamber, and the powder type deposition material contained in the evaporation source is evaporated to evaporate the deposition. By spraying the material, an organic thin film is created on one surface of the substrate. The organic thin film must be deposited on the substrate to the correct thickness.

Meanwhile, in a conventional thin film deposition apparatus, it is common to indirectly measure the thickness of a thin film deposited on a substrate using a separate sensor. These sensors are installed near the evaporation source. Therefore, when the thin film deposition apparatus is used for a long time, the sensor may be heated by radiant heat generated from the evaporation source. Accordingly, as the operation of the overheated sensor becomes unstable, an error may occur in the measured value, and it may be difficult to evaporate the deposition material meeting the target value per hour from the evaporation source.

Korean Patent Registration No. 10-1406199

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to provide a thin film deposition apparatus and a thin film deposition method capable of depositing a deposition material to a target thickness on a substrate.

The object of the present invention is not limited thereto, and other objects not mentioned will be clearly understood by those skilled in the art from the following description.

A thin film deposition apparatus according to an aspect of the present invention includes: a chamber member including a processing space in which a substrate is processed; and an evaporation source installed in the processing space of the chamber member to heat and vaporize the deposition material. a sensor for controlling an evaporation amount installed adjacent to the evaporation source and detecting an amount of evaporation material evaporated per hour from the evaporation source by measuring a thickness of a thin film formed on the surface; a control unit receiving thin film thickness information from the evaporation amount control sensor and controlling the evaporation amount per hour of the deposition material evaporated from the evaporation source to be a target value; and installed to be spaced apart from the evaporation source, measuring the amount of change in the thickness of the thin film generated on the surface, and transmitting the measured change in the thickness of the thin film (ΔM) to the controller, and the controller is the received thickness of the thin film and a sensor for correcting the evaporation amount to control the evaporation source based on the change amount ΔM of .

Meanwhile, the controller may apply the change amount ΔM of the thickness of the thin film to the evaporation amount control sensor to correct the measurement value of the evaporation amount control sensor.

Meanwhile, the chamber member may include an upper chamber and a lower chamber, and the evaporation amount correction sensor may be installed in the upper chamber.

A thin film deposition method according to an aspect of the present invention includes an evaporation step of evaporating a deposition material; A thin film thickness sensing step in which the evaporation amount control sensor and the evaporation amount correction sensor sense the thickness of the thin film; and a correction step of correcting the evaporation amount control sensor with the change amount (ΔM) of the thickness of the thin film measured by the evaporation amount correction sensor.

Meanwhile, the thin film thickness sensing step may be performed in real time.

Meanwhile, the evaporating step may be performed while the substrate is moving in one direction to evaporate the deposition material, and the thin film thickness sensing step may be performed during a period in which a thin film is not generated on the substrate.

A thin film deposition apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention includes a sensor for correcting an evaporation amount. The thin film deposition apparatus may correct the evaporation amount control sensor by using the evaporation amount correction sensor even if the evaporation amount control sensor does not operate normally.

Accordingly, the thin film deposition apparatus can improve the reliability of the thickness of the deposited thin film, and can prevent the reliability of the real-time deposition rate from being deteriorated over time during the process. Further, since the thin film deposition apparatus can deposit a deposition material with an accurate thickness on the substrate, a time for correcting the thickness of the thin film deposited on the substrate during or after the process is performed can be shortened.

1 is a view showing a thin film deposition apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view illustrating the thin film deposition apparatus of FIG. 1 .
3 is a diagram illustrating a thin film deposition method according to an embodiment of the present invention.

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 to which the present invention pertains can easily implement them. The present invention may be embodied in many different forms and is not limited to the embodiments described herein.

In order to clearly explain the present invention, parts irrelevant to the description are omitted, and the same reference numerals are given to the same or similar elements throughout the specification.

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

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

Unless defined otherwise, 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 this invention belongs. Terms such as those defined in commonly used dictionaries should be interpreted as having a meaning consistent with the meaning in the context of the related art, and should not be interpreted in an ideal or excessively formal meaning unless explicitly defined in the present application. does not

Referring to FIG. 1 , a thin film deposition apparatus 100 according to an embodiment of the present invention includes a chamber member 110 , an evaporation source 120 , a sensor 130 for controlling an evaporation amount, a controller 150 , and a sensor 140 for correcting an evaporation amount. includes

The chamber member 110 includes a processing space in which the substrate W is processed. A gate (not shown) for entry and exit of the substrate W may be installed on one wall of the chamber member 110 , and an exhaust part (not shown) for internal exhaust is installed on the other wall of the chamber member 110 . can be Here, the gate may be configured as a slit valve, and the exhaust unit may be configured as a vacuum pump.

Meanwhile, the chamber member 110 may include a lower chamber 112 with an open upper portion and an upper chamber 111 covering the upper portion of the lower chamber 112 coupled to each other. Alternatively, in the chamber member 110 , the upper chamber and the lower chamber may be integrally formed.

The evaporation source 120 is installed in the processing space of the chamber member 110 and heats and vaporizes the deposition material. The vaporized deposition material may be deposited on the substrate W to form a thin film. The shape of the evaporation source 120 may be various shapes such as a circular shape or a linear shape. The evaporation source 120 included in the thin film deposition apparatus 100 according to the embodiment of the present invention may be a linear evaporation source, and each evaporation source 120 may be positioned parallel to each other and spaced apart at regular intervals.

The evaporation amount control sensor 130 is installed adjacent to the evaporation source 120 , and detects an amount of evaporation material evaporated per hour from the evaporation source 120 by measuring the thickness of a thin film formed on the surface. The evaporation amount control sensor 130 may be, for example, a quartz crystal microbalance (QCM).

The crystal vibrator sensor uses the principle that the resonance frequency is changed by the fine mass adsorbed on the surface of the vibrator. The deposition material evaporated from the evaporation source 120 is deposited on the evaporation amount control sensor 130 . The evaporation amount control sensor 130 may measure the thickness of the deposited material through the changed resonant frequency. In addition, the evaporation amount control sensor 130 may also know the evaporation amount of the deposition material deposited per hour from the evaporation source 120 . In addition, the amount of the deposition material deposited on the substrate per hour is proportional to the evaporation amount of the deposition material deposited per hour from the evaporation source 120 . Accordingly, it is possible to indirectly check the thickness of the deposition material deposited on the substrate per hour with the value measured by the evaporation amount control sensor 130 .

The control unit 150 receives the thin film thickness information from the evaporation amount control sensor 130 and controls the evaporation amount per hour of the deposition material evaporated from the evaporation source 120 to be a target value.

The evaporation amount correction sensor 140 is installed to be spaced apart from the evaporation source 120 and measures the amount of change in the thickness of the thin film generated on the surface. The evaporation amount correction sensor 140 may be, for example, a crystal oscillator sensor. The evaporation amount correction sensor 140 may be installed in the upper chamber included in the chamber member 110 . Since the evaporation amount correction sensor 140 is relatively farther from the evaporation source 120 than the evaporation amount control sensor 130 , it is hardly affected by radiant heat, and thus operation reliability can be guaranteed even when used for a long time.

The evaporation amount correction sensor 140 may be operated in real time while the deposition material is deposited on the substrate W. Conversely, the evaporation amount correction sensor 140 may be operated intermittently.

A deposition material may be deposited on the substrate W in a state in which the plurality of substrates W are transferred upwardly to the evaporation source 120 spaced apart from each other at regular intervals. The evaporation amount correction sensor 140 may be operated during a period in which a thin film is not generated on the substrate W between two adjacent substrates W.

The deposition material evaporated from the evaporation source 120 may be deposited on the sensor 130 for controlling the evaporation amount and the sensor 140 for correcting the evaporation amount. In this case, the thickness of the deposition material deposited on each of the sensor 130 for controlling the evaporation amount and the sensor 140 for correcting the evaporation amount may be the same.

Unlike this, since the evaporation amount correction sensor 140 is located relatively farther from the evaporation source 120 than the evaporation amount control sensor 130 , the deposition material is relatively to the evaporation amount correction sensor 140 than the evaporation amount control sensor 130 . Less may be deposited.

The evaporation amount correction sensor 140 transmits the measured change amount (ΔM) of the thickness of the thin film to the control unit 150, and the control unit 150 receives the change amount (ΔM) of the thickness of the thin film based on the received It allows the evaporation source 120 to be controlled. The above-described control unit 150 may apply the change amount ΔM of the thickness of the thin film to the evaporation amount control sensor 130 to correct the measurement value of the evaporation amount control sensor 130 .

An operation process of the thin film deposition apparatus 100 according to an embodiment of the present invention described above will be described in detail.

First, the deposition material may be evaporated from the evaporation source 120 . The rate at which the deposition material evaporated from the evaporation source 120 is initially applied to the substrate W is 1 Å/s, and in this case, the value measured by the evaporation amount control sensor 130 may be 1.

In addition, the value measured by the evaporation amount correction sensor 140 may be 1. Here, for convenience of explanation, it is assumed that the values measured by the evaporation amount control sensor 130 and the evaporation amount correction sensor 140 are absolute values without numerical values. And, when the evaporation amount control sensor 130 and the evaporation amount correction sensor 140 each change from the initial value, the changed value may be the change amount ΔM of the thickness of the thin film.

A deposition material is deposited on the substrate W while the thin film deposition apparatus 100 is operated for a long time. The rate at which the deposition material evaporated from the evaporation source 120 is applied to the substrate W remains unchanged at the initial rate of 1 Å/s, and the sensor 130 for controlling the evaporation amount is excessively heated, resulting in an error in operation. One number can change to 1.2. Accordingly, the evaporation source 120 tries to lower the evaporation rate of the deposition material according to the value of the evaporation amount control sensor 130 .

At this time, since the evaporation amount correction sensor 140 is not affected by the heat generated by the evaporation source 120 , the numerical value measured by the evaporation amount correction sensor 140 may be an initial value of 1. Therefore, the amount of change (ΔM) in the thickness of the thin film measured by the evaporation amount correction sensor 140 is zero.

The control unit 150 receives the change amount ΔM of the thickness of the thin film measured by the evaporation amount correction sensor 140 . The control unit 150 quickly corrects the value of the evaporation amount control sensor 130 to an initial value of 1.

As described above, in the thin film deposition apparatus 100 according to an embodiment of the present invention, even if the evaporation amount control sensor 130 does not operate normally, the evaporation amount control sensor 130 may be corrected using the evaporation amount correction sensor 140 .

Accordingly, the thin film deposition apparatus 100 may improve the reliability of the thickness of the deposited thin film, and may prevent deterioration of the reliability of the real-time deposition rate according to time during the process. In addition, since the thin film deposition apparatus 100 can deposit a deposition material with an accurate thickness on the substrate W, the time for correcting the thickness of the thin film deposited on the substrate W during the process or after the process progress can be shortened. have.

Hereinafter, a thin film deposition method for depositing a thin film on a substrate using the above-described thin film deposition apparatus 100 will be described.

Referring to FIG. 3 , the thin film deposition method ( S100 ) according to an embodiment of the present invention includes an evaporation step ( S110 ), a thin film thickness sensing step ( S120 ), and a correction step ( S130 ).

In the evaporation step S110, the deposition material is evaporated. In the evaporation step S110, the deposition material may be evaporated while the substrate moves in one direction.

In the thin film thickness sensing step ( S120 ), the evaporation amount control sensor and the evaporation amount correction sensor sense the thickness of the thin film. The thin film thickness sensing step ( S120 ) may be performed in real time. On the contrary, the thin film thickness sensing step ( S120 ) may be performed intermittently. For example, the thin film thickness sensing step ( S120 ) may be performed during a period in which a thin film is not generated on the substrate.

In the correction step ( S130 ), the evaporation amount control sensor is corrected with the change amount (ΔM) of the thickness of the thin film measured by the evaporation amount correction sensor. After the correction step (S130), the evaporation step (S110) may be performed again.

Since the thin film deposition method S100 has been described while explaining the operation process of the thin film deposition apparatus, a detailed description thereof will be omitted.

Although various embodiments of the present invention have been described above, the drawings and the detailed description of the described invention referenced so far are merely exemplary of the present invention, which are only used for the purpose of describing the present invention and are not intended to limit meaning or claim claims. It is not intended to limit the scope of the invention described in the scope. Therefore, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that various modifications and equivalent other embodiments are possible therefrom. Accordingly, 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 member
120: evaporation source
130: sensor for evaporation amount control
140: sensor for evaporation compensation
150: control unit

Claims (6)

a chamber member including a processing space in which a substrate is processed; and
an evaporation source installed in the processing space of the chamber member and heating and vaporizing the deposition material;
a sensor for controlling an evaporation amount installed adjacent to the evaporation source and detecting an amount of evaporation material evaporated per hour from the evaporation source by measuring a thickness of a thin film formed on the surface;
a control unit receiving thin film thickness information from the evaporation amount control sensor and controlling the evaporation amount per hour of the deposition material evaporated from the evaporation source to be a target value; and
It is installed to be spaced apart from the evaporation source, measures the amount of change in the thickness of the thin film generated on the surface, and transmits the measured change amount (ΔM) of the thickness of the thin film to the control unit, and the control unit is the received thickness of the thin film. A thin film deposition apparatus including a; a sensor for correcting the evaporation amount to control the evaporation source based on the change amount (ΔM). According to claim 1,
The control unit is
A thin film deposition apparatus for correcting the measured value of the evaporation amount control sensor by applying the change amount (ΔM) of the thickness of the thin film to the evaporation amount control sensor. According to claim 1,
The chamber member includes an upper chamber and a lower chamber,
The evaporation amount correction sensor is a thin film deposition apparatus installed in the upper chamber. A thin film deposition method for depositing a thin film on a substrate with the thin film deposition apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 3,
an evaporation step of evaporating the deposition material;
A thin film thickness sensing step in which the evaporation amount control sensor and the evaporation amount correction sensor sense the thickness of the thin film; and
and a correction step of correcting the evaporation amount control sensor with the change amount (ΔM) of the thickness of the thin film measured by the evaporation amount correction sensor. 5. The method of claim 4,
The thin film thickness sensing step is a thin film deposition method performed in real time. 5. The method of claim 4,
The evaporation step evaporates the deposition material while the substrate moves in one direction,
The thin film thickness sensing step is a thin film deposition method performed during a period in which a thin film is not generated on the substrate.

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