TW202129046A - Methods for cleaning a vacuum chamber, method for cleaning a vacuum system, method for vacuum processing of a substrate, and apparatuses for vacuum processing a substrate - Google Patents

Abstract

A method for cleaning a vacuum chamber, particularly a vacuum chamber used in the manufacture of OLED devices is described. The method includes cleaning at least one of an inside of the vacuum chamber and a component inside the vacuum chamber with active species at a pressure of 5*10<SP>-3</SP> mbar or below, particularly 1*10<SP>-4</SP> mbar or below.

Description

Method for cleaning a vacuum chamber, method for cleaning a vacuum system, method for vacuum processing of a substrate, and equipment for vacuum processing of a substrate

Several embodiments of the present disclosure relate to a method for cleaning a vacuum system, a method for vacuum processing a substrate, and a device for vacuum processing a substrate. The several embodiments of the present disclosure particularly relate to several methods and equipment used in the manufacture of organic light-emitting diode (OLED) devices.

Examples of techniques for layer deposition on the substrate include thermal evaporation, physical vapor deposition (PVD), and chemical vapor deposition (CVD). The coated substrate can be used in several applications and several technical fields. For example, the coated substrate can be used in the field of organic light emitting diode (OLED) devices. OLEDs can be used in TV screens, computer screens, mobile phones, other handheld devices, and the like to display information. For example, an OLED device such as an OLED display may include one or more layers of organic materials located between two electrodes deposited on a substrate.

The OLED device may include a stack of several organic materials. The stack of organic materials is exemplified by evaporation in a vacuum chamber of a processing device. The vacuum conditions inside the vacuum chamber and the contaminants inside the vacuum chamber affect the quality of the deposited material layers and the OLED devices manufactured using these material layers.

For example, the lifetime of an OLED device is imaged by organic pollutants. Contaminants may originate from components and materials used inside the vacuum and/or from cross-contamination during maintenance. Cleaning before or during manufacturing leads to stable and high-quality manufacturing of OLED devices. Cleaning is to remove contaminants.

The duration or time for proper cleaning to achieve the pollution level applicable to manufacturing (preventive maintenance (PM) restoration) is a key resource. For owners of manufacturing systems, every minute of equipment downtime is expensive. Therefore, increasing cleaning efficiency and reducing cleaning time reduce manufacturing costs.

According to common practice, the concentration of active species, such as plasma cleaning, is increased by using a higher vacuum, that is, by using a pressure close to atmospheric pressure. Furthermore, for example, the document WO2018/197008 relates to pre-cleaning and remote plasma cleaning for cleaning at least part of the vacuum system. Plasma cleaning can be performed under vacuum. For example, the pressure can be 10 ^-2 mbar or less. Furthermore, the pressure can be ^{exposed in the range of 10 -2} mbar to 10 mbar and used for remote plasma cleaning. This system is conducive to more improved cleaning efficiency.

Therefore, there is a need for methods and equipment that can improve the vacuum conditions inside the vacuum chamber and the cleaning of the vacuum chamber. The present disclosure particularly focuses on reducing pollutants, so that the quality of the organic material layer deposited on the substrate can be improved.

In view of the above, a method for cleaning a vacuum chamber is proposed; a method for cleaning a vacuum system, which is especially used in the manufacture of organic light emitting diode (OLED) devices; and a method for vacuum processing A method for a substrate; and a device for vacuum processing a substrate, especially for manufacturing OLED devices. Other aspects, advantages, and features of the present disclosure are made clearer through the scope of patent application, description, and accompanying drawings.

According to an embodiment, a method for cleaning a vacuum chamber is provided, and the vacuum chamber is particularly used in the manufacture of several OLED devices. This method involves cleaning a surface of the vacuum chamber and an element inside the vacuum chamber using active species at a pressure of ^{5*10 -3} mbar or less, especially a pressure of 1*10 ^{-4 mbar or less} At least one of.

According to an embodiment, a method for cleaning a vacuum chamber is provided, and the vacuum chamber is particularly used in the manufacture of several OLED devices. The method includes determining an average distance of the walls of the vacuum chamber; and cleaning at least one of the surfaces of the walls of the vacuum chamber and an element inside the vacuum chamber using active species under a pressure. This pressure corresponds to 20% or 97% of the average free path length of the average distance between the walls.

According to an embodiment, a method for cleaning a vacuum chamber is provided, and the vacuum chamber is particularly used in the manufacture of several OLED devices. The method includes igniting the remote plasma source at a first pressure in a remote plasma source, and the vacuum chamber has a second pressure, the second pressure being lower than the first pressure; and changing the remote plasma source The pressure in the source reaches a third pressure, which is equal to or higher than the second pressure.

According to an embodiment, a method for cleaning a vacuum system is provided. The vacuum system has a first vacuum chamber and a second vacuum chamber. This method includes cleaning the first vacuum chamber at a first pressure lower than 1 mbar; and cleaning the second vacuum chamber with active species at a second pressure lower than 1 mbar, the second pressure being different from the first pressure .

According to an embodiment, a method for vacuum processing a substrate to manufacture several OLED devices is provided. This method includes a method for cleaning according to any of the embodiments described herein; and depositing one or more layers of an organic material on the substrate.

According to an embodiment, an apparatus for vacuum processing a substrate, especially for manufacturing OLED devices, is provided. The equipment includes a vacuum chamber; a remote plasma source connected to the vacuum chamber, the remote plasma source having a processing gas inlet, a pipeline, and a processing gas outlet, the pipeline is for active species; and a valve , Located between the vacuum chamber and the remote plasma source, the valve system is positioned to open or close the pipeline.

According to an embodiment, an apparatus for vacuum processing a substrate, especially for manufacturing OLED devices, is provided. The device includes a controller, including: a processor and a memory. The memory system stores a number of instructions. When the processor executes these instructions, it causes the device to execute the methods according to the embodiments of the present disclosure. In order to have a better understanding of the above and other aspects of the present invention, the following specific examples are given in conjunction with the accompanying drawings to describe in detail as follows:

The detailed reference will be achieved with several embodiments of the present disclosure, and one or more examples of the several embodiments of the present disclosure are shown in the drawings. In the description of the drawings below, the same reference numbers refer to the same elements. Generally speaking, only the differences between the individual embodiments are explained. Each example is provided by way of illustrating the present disclosure and is not meant to be a limitation of the present disclosure. Furthermore, the features described or described as part of one embodiment can be used in other embodiments or combined with other embodiments to obtain still other embodiments. This means that this description includes these adjustments and changes.

The vacuum conditions inside the vacuum chamber and the total amount of contaminants may greatly affect the quality of the material layer deposited on the substrate. This pollutant is especially an organic pollutant. In particular, for the mass production of OLEDs, the cleanliness of the vacuum components strongly affects the life time of the manufactured devices. For OLED device manufacturing, even the electropolished surface may still be too dirty. Some embodiments of the present disclosure exemplify the use of a remote plasma source and the use of plasma cleaning for vacuum cleaning. For example, vacuum cleaning can be provided after the pre-cleaning process, for example as a final cleaning process for the vacuum system. Several embodiments of the present disclosure are related to ultra clean vacuum (UCV) cleaning.

For example, plasma cleaning can be used to process parts or components of a vacuum chamber and/or vacuum system. For example, plasma cleaning can be performed under vacuum at the beginning of the process or before the start of manufacturing to improve cleanliness. The treatment can be performed for a period of time using remote plasma, for example, pure oxygen or a mixture of oxygen with nitrogen or argon. Hydrogen or hydrogen mixtures can be used additionally or alternatively.

According to several embodiments of the present disclosure, the cleaning process utilizes a very low vacuum. Very low vacuum can significantly increase cleaning efficiency, especially for large-volume vacuum chambers. Compared with the industry standard, which uses a higher vacuum to produce a higher concentration of active species, the inventors of the present invention have found that, as explained in more detail below, a very low vacuum can be used as described herein to increase Cleaning efficiency.

According to some embodiments of the present disclosure, a method for cleaning a vacuum chamber is provided. The vacuum chamber is particularly used in the manufacture of several OLED devices. This method includes ^{using a pressure of 5*10 -3} mbar or less, especially a pressure of 1*10 ^-4 mbar or less, to clean the inside of one of the vacuum chambers and an element of the inside of the vacuum chamber with active species At least one of.

The cleanliness of the chamber or surface can be determined by contact angle measurement, for example. As shown as an example in Figure 6, the dashed line shows the cleaning efficiency of the standard cleaning process. The contact angle can be exemplified as being slightly reduced to less than 10 in slightly more than 70 hours. The solid line depicts the cleaning process according to several embodiments of the present invention. An example is vacuum exposure through a silicon substrate (block 110). The measured contact angle of almost zero can be achieved in a very short time, for example in 10 hours or less, or even 5 hours or more. Achieved in a short time. After 16 hours of vacuum exposure in a clean chamber, the contact angle can be measured on a pre-cleaned, (block 110) silicon substrate. The cleaning efficiency can be increased by at least an order of magnitude or even some orders of magnitude.

Compared with the traditional cleaning strategy used in the OLED industry, for example, "bake-out under vacuum", several embodiments of the present disclosure are not based on increasing the temperature to reduce and/or remove Organic contaminants inside the vacuum chamber. In particular, when there are temperature-sensitive components such as electronic components inside the system, baking is not an advantageous option. Furthermore, compared with the traditional strategy, the use of active species according to several embodiments of the present disclosure exhibits several orders of magnitude higher cleaning efficiency, and in particular, no baking process is required.

According to several embodiments of the present disclosure, the active species is injected or provided into the vacuum chamber, for example, cleaning the surface in the chamber. An example of in-situ cleaning is mainly cleaning the walls of the vacuum chamber and the components in the vacuum chamber. It can be very efficient for cleaning microscopic layers, such as some single layers. According to several embodiments of the present disclosure that can be combined with other embodiments described herein, the active species may be chemically active species, such as excited molecules or atoms, for example, dissociated pollutant molecules.

The cleaning methods according to several embodiments of the present disclosure include generating excited states of molecules, such as oxygen. Therefore, reactive O, O ₃ and/or other active species can be provided. For example, plasma can be used to generate active species, especially plasma in a remote plasma source.

In view of the distribution strategy of the active species in the vacuum chamber to be cleaned, some embodiments of the present disclosure can be further explained. Compared with the industry standard cleaning process strategy based on maximizing the number of active species used in the cleaning process, several embodiments of the present disclosure reduce the number of active species involved in the cleaning process. Furthermore, the efficiency of active species is increased by changing the distribution of active species in the vacuum chamber.

Under each impact, plasma molecules (for example, O) can decay into stable O ₂ . O ₂ is non-reactive. Lower pressure results in lower density, and thus reduces the initial active species concentration. However, lower pressure increases the average free path length of excited molecules.

For example, the average free path length can be calculated by the following formula:

The obtained value can be, for example ^{, approximately 6 m at 10 -3} Pa, and correspondingly 6 mm at 1 Pa.

As mentioned above, the life span of chemically active species is limited. Under each impact, for example, the impact with other molecules in the vacuum, the impact with the chamber wall, or the impact with the surface of the element, for the active species, there is a chance to recombine into non-reactive molecules. At high pressures, for example at a pressure of 1 mbar or greater, the total amount of atoms per volume is high. Furthermore, the average free path length is small, and the average free path length is the average distance between impacts. Even when the initial concentration of the active species produced is high, the probability of reaching the far side of the large chamber is therefore small.

Several embodiments of the present disclosure described herein utilize low pressure to produce a longer mean free path length of the active species. The mean free path length can be adjusted by changing the chamber pressure. When the chamber pressure is reduced, the scattering characteristics are continuously changed from atom-to-atom (or molecule-to-molecule) impact to atom-to-wall impact (that is, line-of-sight scattering).

For OLED chambers, an average wall-to-wall distance of 3 m can be provided. The average free path length of the active species can therefore be less than 3 m to ensure homogeneous distribution through scattering. Furthermore, the average free path length can be 0.5 m or more to have a good reach in the chamber. For example, a ^{base pressure of 5*10 -5} mbar or more and/or 9*10 ^-5 mbar or less can be provided according to some embodiments that can be combined with other embodiments described herein. An example of the average wall-to-wall distance or the average wall distance is defined as follows. The vacuum chamber generally has a bottom wall and a top wall with a vertical distance. Furthermore, the vacuum chamber generally has two opposite side walls with a first horizontal distance, and the other two opposite side walls with a second horizontal distance. For example, the average distance of the wall may be the average of the vertical distance, the first horizontal distance, and the second horizontal distance. The above example refers to the vacuum chamber in the shape of a rectangular parallelepiped. For cylindrical chambers or chambers with trapezoidal cross-sections, the average distance can be calculated in a similar way.

According to some embodiments that can be combined with other embodiments described herein, a method for cleaning a vacuum chamber is proposed, the vacuum chamber is particularly a vacuum chamber used in the manufacture of OLED devices. The method includes determining an average distance of the walls of the vacuum chamber, and at least one of a pressure-washed surface of the walls of the vacuum chamber and an element inside the vacuum chamber, the pressure corresponding to The average distance between these walls is 20% to 97% of the average free path length.

FIG. 1A shows a flowchart of a method 100 for cleaning a vacuum system used in the manufacture of an OLED device according to several embodiments described herein.

The method 100 includes cleaning with active species at low pressure (block 110). For example, the active species can be generated using a plasma source and/or ultraviolet light, and the plasma source is exemplified as a remote plasma source. Plasma cleaning can be the final cleaning process before operating the vacuum system, for example, depositing one or more organic material layers on the substrate, or can be the cleaning process during operation, for example, the idle time. The name "final" is understood to mean that no other cleaning procedure is performed after plasma cleaning.

In remote plasma sources, gases such as processing gases are generally activated in the remote chamber. The distal chamber is away from the vacuum chamber. The cleaning process will be performed in a vacuum chamber. Such activation can be performed in a remote plasma source, for example. Examples of the remote plasma used in the embodiment of the present disclosure include pure oxygen or remote plasma with an oxygen mixture of nitrogen or argon, but are not limited to these.

The pre-cleaning and use for cleaning at least a part of the vacuum system is an example of a remote plasma source for plasma cleaning at least a part of the vacuum chamber, which can be used for several types of components of the vacuum system. In some applications, pre-cleaning and plasma cleaning include the cleaning of the vacuum chamber individually. For example, the individual cleaning includes cleaning of one or more inner walls of the vacuum chamber. The cleaning may additionally or alternatively include cleaning of one or more components inside the vacuum chamber of the vacuum system. The one or more elements can be selected from the group consisting of mechanical elements, movable elements, actuators, valves, and any combination thereof. For example, the mechanical element can be any element arranged inside the vacuum chamber, such as a movable element used to operate a vacuum system. The movable element in the example includes a valve, such as a gate valve, but it is not limited to this. The driver may include a driver used to transfer substrates and/or carriers in a vacuum system, a driver or actuator used to align substrates and/or masks, and used to separate adjacent vacuum areas or chambers such as gate valves. Valve drivers, and the like.

According to some embodiments that can be combined with other embodiments described herein, the method for cleaning is performed after the maintenance procedure of the vacuum system or part of the vacuum system, and the method is, for example, method 100. In particular, after maintenance, pre-cleaning such as wet cleaning is not sufficient to achieve proper cleanliness for mass production of OLEDs. After the pre-cleaning, the cleaning process can ensure cleanliness and can improve the quality of the organic material layer during the deposition process, such as a thermal evaporation process. This cleaning procedure is also plasma cleaning. Plasma cleaning can also be used to avoid re-contamination caused by outgassing of polymers (O-rings, cables, etc.) during manufacturing or when the system is idle.

The name "maintenance program" can be understood as meaning that the vacuum system does not operate, but can perform several tasks such as vacuum system and/or part of the vacuum system and/or initial installation. The maintenance procedure can be cyclically executed at a predetermined service interval, for example.

In some applications, cleaning is performed in one or more (vacuum) chambers of the vacuum system. One or more (vacuum) chambers of the vacuum system are selected from loading chambers, cleaning chambers, vacuum deposition chambers, vacuum processing chambers, transfer chambers, routing modules, and others A group formed by a combination.

As mentioned above, the several embodiments of the present disclosure refer to cleaning at low pressure, especially low pressure suitable for the size and optional geometry of the vacuum chamber to be cleaned. Display manufacturing is processed on a large area, and display manufacturing is, for example, the manufacturing of OLED displays. For example, the size of the substrate may be 0.67 m ² or more, such as 1 m ² or more.

The system described here can be applied to evaporation on large-area substrates, for example for the manufacture of OLED displays. In particular, the substrate provided for use in the system according to the several embodiments described herein is a large area substrate. For example, the large-area substrate or carrier may be the 4.5th generation, the 5th generation, the 6th generation, the 7.5th generation, the 8.5th generation, or even the 10th generation. The 4.5th generation corresponds to a ^{surface area of about 0.67 m 2} (0.73 mx 0.92 m), the 5th generation corresponds to a ^{surface area of about 1.4 m 2} (1.1 mx 1.3 m), and the 6th generation corresponds to a surface area of ^{about 2.7 m 2 (1.5 mx} 1.8 m), the 7.5 generation corresponds to a ^{surface area of about 4.29 m 2} (1.95 mx 2.2 m), the 8.5 generation corresponds to a ^{surface area of about 5.7 m 2} (2.2 mx 2.5 m), and the 10th generation corresponds to a surface area of about 8.7 m ² Surface area (2.85 m × 3.05 m). Even higher generations such as the 11th and 12th generations and the corresponding surface area can be applied in a similar way. One and a half of the size of these generations can also be provided in the manufacture of OLED displays.

According to several embodiments of the present disclosure, an improved pressure level for cleaning with active species can be provided according to the size of the chamber. Therefore, the lower pressure can be advantageously used for larger chambers. For smaller chambers, the pressure can be higher corresponding to the shorter mean free path length.

According to still other embodiments that can be combined with other embodiments described herein, the inventor's findings can be similarly applied to vacuum chambers in the semiconductor industry, such as wafer processing or wafer inspection. When the chamber may generally be smaller, the pressure may be higher. In particular, referring to several embodiments of optimizing the average free path length based on the average chamber wall distance, it is applied to smaller vacuum chambers. Furthermore, the improvement or optimization of other cleaning parameters can additionally or alternatively be applied to semiconductor manufacturing in a similar manner.

FIG. 1B shows a flowchart of a method 100 for cleaning a vacuum system used in the manufacture of OLED according to several embodiments described herein.

The method 100 includes determining the average distance of the walls of the vacuum chamber as described above (block 120), and performing cleaning with active species at low pressure (block 110). The low pressure corresponds to 20% to 97% of the average free path length of the average distance between these walls.

Several still other embodiments can optionally be combined with other embodiments described herein, and these still other embodiments relate to applicable process parameters as described herein for use in, for example, low-pressure cleaning conditions.

Especially for the manufacture of OLED devices, the quality of the vacuum in the vacuum chamber and the contaminants in the vacuum chamber strongly affect the performance of the device. In particular, the life of the manufacturing device may be drastically reduced due to contaminants. Therefore, the inner surface of the vacuum chamber needs to be cleaned frequently. The processing chamber, the manufacturing chamber, the transfer chamber, the transfer chamber, the storage chamber, and the component chamber are sensitive to contaminants. The interaction between humans and the inner surfaces of these chambers introduces organic and inorganic contaminants absorbed by the surfaces of the chambers and/or the surfaces of the components.

Although the wet cleaning process through the inner surface of a human operator may be time consuming and labor intensive, wet cleaning is beneficial to remove tiny contaminants such as contained solvent usage, particles, and the like. Furthermore, human operators may introduce additional organic pollutants into the system, and some services may not be efficiently achieved by human operators.

According to several embodiments of the present disclosure, a wet cleaning process can be used to remove tiny pollutants. According to several embodiments described herein, the in-situ cleaning process can be provided after the wet cleaning process or another pre-cleaning process.

As mentioned above, the pressure that determines the reduction of the mean free path length of the active species is a parameter to improve the cleaning efficiency. Pressure determines the concentration of active species that reach the contaminated surface. For example, the concentration of active species governs cleaning efficiency. The active species can be a small portion of the total process gas in the vacuum chamber. With a fixed pump speed, by setting the chamber pressure and the corresponding mean free path length, the number of active species that reach the contaminated surface is defined. By increasing the pump speed, the operating pressure (and mean free pass) can be maintained as the inlet flow is increased.

According to some embodiments that can be combined with other embodiments described herein, the inlet flow can be increased without reducing the activation efficiency of the plasma.

FIG. 2 shows a flowchart of a method 200 for vacuum deposition on a substrate to manufacture an OLED device, a display device, or a semiconductor device. In view of the sensitivity to organic pollutants, the method may be particularly useful for OLED devices. The method 200 may include several aspects of a method for cleaning a vacuum system used in the manufacture of an OLED device, for example, according to the present disclosure.

The method 200 includes performing cleaning at least a part of the vacuum chamber (block 110), and depositing one or more layers of materials on the substrate (block 210). The material is, for example, an organic material.

The plasma cleaning according to several embodiments of the present disclosure can significantly improve the cleanliness and/or cleaning efficiency of the vacuum system. In the cleaning of vacuum chambers used for large-area substrates in 5 hours or less, plasma cleaning can produce nearly zero contact angles. After 16 hours of vacuum exposure in a clean chamber, the contact angle can be measured on a pre-cleaned, (block 110) silicon substrate.

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram of a part of a processing system 300 for manufacturing an OLED device by vacuum deposition on a substrate according to several embodiments described herein.

In FIG. 3, the processing module 310 is connected to the path-following transmission module 320. The maintenance module 340 can be coupled to the processing module. The transition module 330 provides a path from the first compliant path transmission module along the transmission direction to the second compliant path transmission module (not shown). Each module can have one or more vacuum chambers. Furthermore, the transition module may provide two or more tracks, for example, four conveying tracks 352, in which the carrier can move away from one of the path-following conveying modules. As shown in Figure 3, the conveying direction of the conveying module and/or the transitional module along the following path can be the first direction. Other path-following transmission modules can be connected to other processing modules (not shown). As shown in Figure 3, the gate valve 305 can be individually arranged between adjacent modules or vacuum chambers, for example, between the transition module and the adjacent path-dependent conveying module along the first direction. Set along the second direction. The gate valve 305 can be closed or opened to provide a vacuum seal between these vacuum chambers. The existence of the gate valve may be determined by the application of the processing system, for example, the type, number, and/or order of the layers of organic material deposited on the substrate. Therefore, one or more gate valves can be arranged between the transfer chambers.

According to a typical embodiment, the transfer track 352 is assembled for non-contact transfer of the substrate carrier and/or the mask carrier to reduce the contaminants in the vacuum chamber. In particular, the transfer track may include a supporting assembly and a driving structure, which are assembled for non-contact translation of the substrate carrier and/or the mask carrier.

As shown in FIG. 3, the two substrates 301 are rotated in the path-following transmission module 320. The two transfer tracks on which the substrates are positioned are rotated so as to be aligned in the first direction. Therefore, the two substrates on these conveying tracks are provided in one position to be conveyed to the transition module and other adjacent path-dependent conveying modules.

According to some embodiments that can be combined with other embodiments described herein, the conveying track of the conveying track configuration can extend from the vacuum processing chamber to the vacuum-following path conveying chamber, that is, it can be oriented in a direction different from the first direction. In the second direction. Therefore, one or more of the substrates can be transferred from the vacuum processing chamber to the adjacent vacuum-following path transfer chamber. Furthermore, as shown by way of example in FIG. 3, the gate valve 305 can be disposed between the processing module and the path-following transmission module. The gate valve 305 can be opened to transfer the one or more substrates. Therefore, it will be understood that the substrate can be transferred from the first processing module to the first path-dependent transfer module, from the first path-dependent transfer module to other path-dependent transfer modules, and from other path-dependent transfer modules Send to other processing modules. Therefore, several processes such as depositing several layers of organic materials on the substrate can be performed without exposing the substrate to an undesired environment, such as an atmospheric environment or a non-vacuum environment.

FIG. 3 further shows a number of masks 303 and a number of substrates 301 in the processing module 310. The deposition source 309 may be correspondingly disposed between the masks and/or the substrates.

Each vacuum chamber of these modules shown in FIG. 3 includes a remote plasma source 350. For example, the remote plasma source can be fixed to the chamber wall of the vacuum chamber. The chamber wall can exemplarily be the upper chamber wall. Although the processing system 300 shows a vacuum chamber with a remote plasma source in each chamber, the processing system may include at least one remote plasma source 350. In particular, the processing system 300 may include a first vacuum chamber and a second vacuum chamber. The first vacuum chamber has a first remote plasma source, and the second vacuum chamber has a second remote plasma source.

For example, the remote plasma source 350 of the processing module 310 is connected to the vacuum chamber. The controller connected to the remote plasma source is assembled to perform plasma cleaning according to several embodiments of the present disclosure. In particular, the controller can be equipped to apply the disclosed method for cleaning a vacuum system or a vacuum chamber used in the manufacture of OLED devices, for example. An example vacuum chamber with a remote plasma source is described in more detail with reference to FIG. 4.

One or more vacuum pumps are, for example, turbo pumps and/or cryo-pumps, which can be connected to the vacuum chamber through one or more tubes for use in the vacuum chamber. A technical vacuum is created on the inside. The one or more tubes are, for example, corrugated tubes. The controller can be further equipped to control the one or more vacuum pumps, for example, to reduce the pressure in the vacuum chamber before the plasma cleaning process.

The name "vacuum" used throughout this disclosure can be understood to mean a technical vacuum having a vacuum pressure less than 10 mbar, for example. Especially for vacuum chambers used to process large-area substrates, the pressure in the vacuum chamber can be between 10 ^-3 mbar and about 10 ^-7 mbar, especially between 10 ^-4 mbar and 10 ^-5 mbar .

As shown in Figure 3, the processing system 300 may have several different modules. Each module can have at least one vacuum chamber. The vacuum chambers can be different in size and geometry. As described above, according to some embodiments of the present disclosure that can be combined with other embodiments described herein, the cleaning efficiency of cleaning with active species can be greatly improved by using the mean free path length to the size and geometry of the vacuum chamber. Increase. The beneficial compromise between atom-to-atom collisions can be determined to increase the homogeneity of the distribution of active species in the vacuum chamber and the collision of atoms to the wall, that is, the active species in the chamber has a sufficient amount. Choosing a favorable compromise between different scattering mechanisms greatly increases the cleaning efficiency.

Therefore, according to some embodiments, the pressure in the vacuum chamber during cleaning using the active species can be independently used for two or more vacuum chambers in the vacuum processing system. The mean free path length is improved or optimized for independent chamber size and/or chamber geometry. According to an embodiment, a method for cleaning a vacuum system having a first vacuum chamber and a second vacuum chamber is provided. The method includes cleaning the first vacuum chamber with active species at a first pressure lower than 1 mbar, and cleaning the second vacuum chamber with active species at a second pressure lower than 1 mbar. The second pressure is different from the first pressure.

According to several embodiments of the present disclosure, cleaning with active species such as a remote plasma source can achieve high efficiency. A typical remote plasma source has a pressure range for the ignition source. For example, it is possible to ignite the remote plasma source at a pressure of 0.05 mbar or above, such as a pressure of 0.1 mbar to 1.5 mbar. The remote plasma source and the volume generated by the active species in the remote plasma source are connected to the vacuum chamber. Therefore, the chamber pressure of the vacuum chamber can be increased to the ignition pressure of the remote plasma source. The remote plasma source is connected to the vacuum chamber after ignition, and cleaning conditions with reduced pressure are generated. Pumping of the vacuum chamber takes extra time and may limit the cleaning application time immediately after preventive maintenance. A cleaning procedure that does not increase the chamber pressure of the vacuum chamber to be cleaned will allow more frequent cleaning. The several embodiments described here exemplarily refer to Fig. 4 below to provide a high-efficiency cleaning procedure during a short interruption or idle time. Therefore, it can provide recontamination and overall pollution control during manufacturing. The consistent high quality of OLED devices can be ensured. Therefore, the several embodiments described herein also provide effective cleaning of contaminants, because the idle time during the short interruption period can be used for remote plasma cleaning.

FIG. 4 shows a schematic diagram of an apparatus 400 for vacuum processing substrates. For example, the substrate may be a large area substrate as described herein or a wafer used in the semiconductor industry. In particular, equipment used for vacuum processing can be assembled for the manufacture of OLED devices or included in a processing system to manufacture OLED devices. This equipment includes a vacuum chamber 410. The vacuum chamber 410 can be exhausted by the vacuum pump 420. Especially for the OLED manufacturing process, the vacuum pump can be a freezing pump. The remote plasma source 350 is coupled to the vacuum chamber 410. According to some embodiments, the remote plasma source may be coupled to the upper wall of the vacuum chamber.

The remote plasma source 350 includes a housing 450 and a plasma generator 451, and plasma is generated in the housing 450. For the production of active species, the processing gas inlet 452 is provided in the housing 450. During operation, a processing gas such as an oxygen-containing processing gas or a hydrogen-containing processing gas may be provided to the remote plasma source through the processing gas inlet 452. For example, the processing gas may include oxygen and at least one of nitrogen and argon. For example, the processing gas used to generate active species includes a gas consisting of at least 90 Vol.-% oxygen and at least 2 Vol.-% argon, and about Vol.-95% oxygen and about Vol.-5% argon. At least one of the group selections. The valve 455 may be disposed between the remote plasma source 350 and the vacuum chamber 410. For example, the valve 455 may be included in a flange 453 that connects the remote plasma source 350 to the vacuum chamber 410.

The valve 455 allows different pressures in the vacuum chamber 410 and the housing 450 of the remote plasma source 350. Therefore, the remote plasma source 350 can be ignited at a higher pressure, while the vacuum chamber 410 is maintained at a lower pressure. According to some embodiments that can be combined with other embodiments described herein, a bypass for valve 455 is provided. The bypass 456 provides fluid communication between the housing 450 and the vacuum chamber 410. If the valve is in the closed position, the process gas system flowing through the process gas inlet 452 will change the pressure in the housing 450 without having an outlet for the incoming process gas flow. The size of the bypass is to provide differential pumping between the housing 450 and the vacuum chamber 410.

Therefore, in addition to the pipe 457 connected to the remote plasma source and the vacuum chamber, the processing gas outlet is advantageously provided according to the several embodiments described herein. According to additional or alternative adjustments that can be combined with other embodiments described herein, the processing gas outlet can also be a pump 425, which is connected to a remote plasma source. In addition to the pipe 457, the process gas outlet allows the generation of stable ignition conditions for the remote plasma source. After igniting the remote plasma source, the valve 455 in the pipe 457 can be opened. The active species can be provided to the vacuum chamber 410 from the housing of the remote plasma source. The pipe 457 can be the other part of the flange 453.

Some embodiments of the present disclosure use bypass to generate ignition conditions in the remote plasma source, while the chamber pressure has little effect. After opening the valve corresponding to, for example, the bypass-related valve, the improved cleaning conditions according to the several embodiments of the present disclosure can be achieved almost immediately.

The remote plasma source (RPS) is connected to the vacuum chamber by a flange. Incorporated in the flange can be a valve that can isolate the vacuum chamber and the remote plasma source unit. The valve is, for example, a pendulum valve. According to some embodiments that can be combined with other embodiments described herein, small tubes with variable orifices, for example, are attached to the top of the flange (RPS side) and the bottom of the flange (chamber side). Small pipe system diverter valve.

In order to ignite the plasma inside the RPS unit, the valve is closed and the inlet flow system flows into the RPS unit. The small bypass system ensures the consistent pressure inside the plasma cell for ignition. After the plasma stabilizes, the valve can be opened. The active species generated by the plasma inside the remote plasma source can be directly moved into the chamber for cleaning.

In view of the above, according to an embodiment, an apparatus for vacuum processing a substrate is proposed. The substrate is particularly used to manufacture OLED devices. The equipment includes a vacuum chamber and a remote plasma source. The remote plasma source is connected to the vacuum chamber. The remote plasma source has a processing gas inlet, a pipeline, and a processing gas outlet. The pipeline system is used for active species. For example, the pipe can connect the vacuum chamber and the housing of the remote plasma source. The process gas outlet and pipe can be included in the flange of the remote plasma source. The device further includes a valve located between the vacuum chamber and the remote plasma source. The valve system is positioned to open or close the pipeline. According to some embodiments, the device may further include a bypass for pipelines, and the bypass is connected to the processing gas outlet and the vacuum chamber.

Figure 4 shows the controller 490. The controller 490 is connected to the vacuum pump 420 and the remote plasma source 350. The controller 490 may include a central processing unit (CPU), a memory, and, for example, a supporting circuit. In order to facilitate the control of equipment to process substrates, the CPU can be one of any forms of general purpose computer processors, which can be used in industrial settings to control several chambers and sub-processors . The memory system is coupled to the CPU. The memory or computer-readable medium can be one or more ready-available memory devices, such as random access memory, read only memory, and software. Floppy disk, hard disk, or any other form of local or remote electronic storage. The support circuit can be coupled to the CPU for supporting the processor in a traditional way. These circuits include caches, power supplies, clock circuits, input/output circuits and related secondary systems, and the like. The instructions for viewing the manufacturing process and/or the instructions for generating the notches in the electronic device disposed on the substrate are generally stored in the memory as a software routine generally known as a recipe. The software routines may also be stored in a second CPU (not shown) and/or executed by the second CPU, which is remote from the hardware controlled by the CPU. When the software routine is executed by the CPU, it converts a general-purpose computer into a dedicated computer (controller). A dedicated computer (controller) controls the operation of the equipment, for example, special controls the vacuum pump 420 and the remote plasma source 350. Although the method and/or process of the present disclosure are discussed as being applied in a software routine, some of the method steps disclosed herein can be executed by hardware and by a software controller. Therefore, these embodiments can be implemented in software based on computer system execution, implemented in hardware as dedicated integrated circuits or other forms of hardware, or implemented in a combination of software and hardware. The controller can apply or execute the method for cleaning the vacuum chamber and/or processing the substrate according to several embodiments of the present disclosure. The substrate is for example used in display manufacturing.

According to several embodiments described herein, the method for vacuum processing substrates can be executed by computer programs, software, computer software products, and related controllers. The related controller may have a CPU, memory, user interface, and input and output devices to communicate with related components of the equipment.

FIG. 5 shows a flowchart of another method 500 according to several embodiments described herein. The method 500 is used to clean the vacuum chamber, especially the vacuum chamber used in the manufacture of OLED devices. The method includes (see block 510) igniting the remote plasma source at a first pressure in the remote plasma source, and the vacuum chamber has a second pressure, the second pressure being lower than the first pressure. The method further includes changing the pressure in the remote plasma to a third pressure. The third pressure is equal to or higher than the second pressure, and the pressure higher than the second pressure is, for example, slightly higher than the second pressure (see block 520). For example, some methods that can be combined with other methods described herein may include igniting the remote plasma source at a first pressure, and reducing the pressure of the remote plasma source to a second pressure, the second pressure being less than the first pressure The pressure is at least one order of magnitude, and the second pressure is in particular at least three orders of magnitude lower than the first pressure.

In summary, although the present invention has been disclosed in the above embodiments, it is not intended to limit the present invention. Those with ordinary knowledge in the technical field to which the present invention belongs can make various changes and modifications without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention. Therefore, the protection scope of the present invention shall be subject to those defined by the attached patent application scope.

100, 200, 500: method 110, 120, 210, 510, 520: block 300: processing system 301: Substrate 303: Mask 305: Gate Valve 309: Sediment Source 310: Processing module 320: Follow the path transmission module 330: Transition Module 340: Maintenance Module 350: remote plasma source 352: Conveyor Track 400: Equipment 410: vacuum chamber 420: vacuum pump 425: Pump 450: Shell 451: Plasma Generator 452: Process gas inlet 453: Flange 455: Valve 456: Bypass 457: pipe 490: Controller

In order to make the above-mentioned features of the present disclosure to be understood in detail, the more specific description of the present disclosure briefly excerpted above may refer to several embodiments. The attached drawings are related to several embodiments of the present disclosure and are described below: 1A and 1B show a flowchart of a method for cleaning a vacuum system used in the manufacture of OLED devices according to several embodiments described herein; FIG. 2 shows a flowchart of a method for manufacturing an OLED device by vacuum processing a substrate according to several embodiments described herein; FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram of a system for manufacturing an OLED device by vacuum processing a substrate according to several embodiments described herein; Figure 4 shows a schematic diagram of the equipment used to clean the vacuum chamber according to several embodiments described herein; Figure 5 shows a flowchart of a method for cleaning a vacuum system used in the manufacture of OLED devices according to several embodiments described herein; and FIG. 6 shows a graph comparing the cleaning efficiency of a standard cleaning process and the cleaning efficiency of the process according to several embodiments of the present disclosure.

350: remote plasma source

400: Equipment

410: vacuum chamber

420: vacuum pump

425: Pump

450: Shell

451: Plasma Generator

452: Process gas inlet

453: Flange

455: Valve

456: Bypass

457: pipe

490: Controller

Claims (20)

A method for cleaning a vacuum chamber includes: cleaning at least one of a surface of the vacuum chamber and an element inside the vacuum chamber with active species at a pressure of ^{5*10 -3 mbar or less} ; Determine an average distance of the plurality of walls of the vacuum chamber; and at a pressure corresponding to 20% or more of the average free path length of the average distance of the walls, clean the vacuum chamber with active species At least one of a surface and an element inside the vacuum chamber. The method according to claim 1, wherein the vacuum chamber is used in the manufacture of a plurality of organic light emitting diode (OLED) devices, or wherein the cleaning using active species is 1*10 ^-4 mbar or less Of a pressure. The method according to claim 1, wherein the active species is produced using a remote plasma source. The method described in claim 3 further includes: Ignite the remote plasma source at a first pressure; and Reduce the pressure in the remote plasma source to a second pressure selected from at least one of at least one order of magnitude lower than the first pressure and at least three orders of magnitude lower than the first pressure 'S group. The method according to claim 4, wherein the plasma cleaning includes cleaning one or one of the inner walls of the vacuum chamber. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 5, wherein one of the processing gases used to generate the active species includes oxygen. The method of claim 6, wherein the process gas used to generate active species includes from at least 90 Vol.-% oxygen and at least 2 Vol.-% argon, and about Vol.-95% oxygen and about Vol. -At least one selected from the group consisting of 5% argon. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 5, wherein the method is performed after a maintenance procedure of a vacuum system or a plurality of parts of the vacuum system. A method for cleaning a vacuum chamber includes: Determine an average distance between the walls of the vacuum chamber; and At a pressure corresponding to 20% or more of a mean free path length of the average distance of the walls, at least one of a surface of the vacuum chamber and an element inside the vacuum chamber is cleaned by an active species By. The method according to claim 9, wherein the vacuum chamber is used in the manufacture of a plurality of organic light emitting diode (OLED) devices, or the cleaning using active species is at the average distance corresponding to the walls A pressure of 20% or more of the mean free path length and 97% or less. The method according to claim 9 or 10, wherein the active species is produced using a remote plasma source. A method for cleaning a vacuum chamber includes: A first pressure in a remote plasma source ignites the remote plasma source, and the vacuum chamber has a second pressure, the second pressure being lower than the first pressure; Reducing the pressure in the remote plasma source to a third pressure, the third pressure being equal to or higher than the second pressure; Determine an average distance between the walls of the vacuum chamber; and At a pressure corresponding to 20% or more of a mean free path length of the average distance of the walls, at least one of a surface of the vacuum chamber and an element inside the vacuum chamber is cleaned by an active species By. The method according to claim 12, wherein the vacuum chamber is used in the manufacture of a plurality of organic light emitting diode (OLED) devices. A method for cleaning a vacuum system, the vacuum system having a first vacuum chamber and a second vacuum chamber, the method comprising: Cleaning the first vacuum chamber with active species at a first pressure lower than 1 mbar; Cleaning the second vacuum chamber with active species at a second pressure lower than 1 mbar, the second pressure being different from the first pressure; Determine an average distance between the walls of the first vacuum chamber; At a pressure of 20% or more of a mean free path length corresponding to the mean distance of the walls of the first vacuum chamber, the surface of the first vacuum chamber and the first vacuum chamber are cleaned with active species At least one of an element inside the vacuum chamber; Determine an average distance between the walls of the second vacuum chamber; and At a pressure of 20% or more of a mean free path length corresponding to the mean distance of the walls of the second vacuum chamber, the surface of the second vacuum chamber and the second vacuum chamber are cleaned with active species At least one of an element inside the vacuum chamber. A method for manufacturing a plurality of organic light emitting diode (OLED) devices by vacuum processing a substrate, including: The method for cleaning as described in any one of claims 1 to 5, 9, 10, and 12 to 14; and Depositing one or more layers of an organic material on the substrate. A device for vacuum processing a substrate, including: A vacuum chamber; A remote plasma source connected to the vacuum chamber, the remote plasma source having a processing gas inlet, a pipe, and a processing gas outlet, and the pipe is for active species; and A valve located between the vacuum chamber and the remote plasma source, the valve is positioned to open or close the pipeline; Wherein, the cleaning of the vacuum chamber includes determining an average distance of a plurality of walls of the vacuum chamber, at a pressure corresponding to 20% or more of an average free path length of the average distance of the walls, using The active species cleans at least one of a surface of the vacuum chamber and an element inside the vacuum chamber. The apparatus according to claim 16, wherein the apparatus used for vacuum processing the substrate is used for manufacturing a plurality of organic light emitting diode (OLED) devices. The equipment described in claim 16 or 17, further including: A bypass is used for the pipeline, and the bypass connects the processing gas outlet and the vacuum chamber. The equipment described in any one of Claims 16 to 17, further including: A controller includes: a processor and a memory. The memory system stores a plurality of instructions. When the processor executes the instructions, it causes the device to execute request items 1 to 5, 9, 10, and 12 to 14 Any of the methods described. A device for vacuum processing a substrate, including: A controller includes: a processor and a memory. The memory system stores a plurality of instructions. When the processor executes the instructions, it causes the device to execute request items 1 to 5, 9, 10, and 12 to 14 Any of the methods described.

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