TWI477630B - Thin film deposition apparatus and bearing element thereof - Google Patents

Description

Thin film deposition machine and its carrier

The present invention relates to a film forming machine, and more particularly to a film deposition machine and its carrier.

In today's semiconductor, electronics, mechanical and other industrial fields, thin film deposition technology has been widely used. Thin film deposition techniques can be divided into physical vapor deposition and chemical vapor deposition, wherein physical vapor deposition is the use of phase changes of materials for thin film deposition without involving chemical reactions.

In physical vapor deposition, a common method is sputtering, which uses an ionized gas to bombard a target to deposit particles of the target onto the substrate to form a thin film on the substrate.

In the prior art, the substrate is placed on a carrier of a thin film deposition machine. 1 is a top plan view of a carrier of a conventional thin film deposition machine when a substrate is carried, and FIG. 2 is a schematic cross-sectional view of the carrier of FIG. 1 for carrying a substrate. Referring to FIG. 1 and FIG. 2, in order to avoid the size of the carrier 100 being too large, it is easy to be damaged and damaged during transportation. The conventional carrier 100 is designed to be formed by three rectangular plates 110 side by side. In this way, the three rectangular plates 110 can be separated and then transported to reduce the probability of the carrier 100 being damaged during handling.

In the prior art, the substrate 50 is disposed on the carrier 100, and the target particles are deposited on the substrate 50 in the region 102 of the carrier 100 that is not covered by the substrate 50, so that the region 102 is also A film will form. When the film on region 102 is deposited to a certain thickness, cleaning is required to avoid the film on region 102 becoming a source of contamination.

However, in the cleaning work of the carrier 100, the carrier 100 needs to be disassembled, and each rectangular plate 110 of the carrier 100 is transported to the cleaning place for cleaning, which is time consuming. Moreover, these long-formed sheets 110 are easily damaged during frequent disassembly and assembly processes or handling during long-term use, and frequent cleaning also causes variations in the thickness of these rectangular sheets 110.

In addition, after the three rectangular plates 110 of the carrier 100 are combined, the height difference between the adjacent rectangular plates 110 is easily generated, and the substrate 50 cannot be in flat contact with the carrier 100. If the thickness of each rectangular plate 110 is easily changed after repeated cleaning, the above problem will be more serious. Since the carrier 100 has a heat conduction function, if the substrate 50 cannot be in flat contact with the carrier 100, the substrate 50 will be heated unevenly. Moreover, since the speed and structure of film deposition are closely related to the temperature of the surface of the substrate 50, uneven heating of the substrate 50 will degrade the film quality.

The invention provides a thin film deposition machine to reduce maintenance costs and improve film quality.

The invention further provides a carrier to improve cleaning efficiency.

The invention provides a thin film deposition machine adapted to bombard a target to deposit a thin film on a substrate, the thin film deposition machine comprising a first electrode plate, a second electrode plate and a carrier. The second electrode plate is opposite to the first electrode plate, the target is disposed on the first electrode plate, and the carrier is disposed on the second electrode plate. The carrier is adapted to carry a substrate and includes a body that is separable from each other and a frame, wherein the frame is adapted to surround the body.

In an embodiment of the invention, the body is rectangular and the frame is adapted to connect to each side of the body.

In an embodiment of the invention, the frame comprises a plurality of sheets.

In an embodiment of the invention, the body and the frame are made of the same material.

In an embodiment of the invention, the body of the body is different from the material of the frame.

In an embodiment of the invention, the edge of the body is provided with a first overlapping portion, and the edge of the frame is provided with a second overlapping portion that cooperates with the first overlapping portion, and the carrier is composed of the body and the frame. A flat plate that is lapped.

In an embodiment of the invention, the body and the frame are respectively provided with a plurality of locking holes for locking to the second electrode plate.

In an embodiment of the invention, the thin film deposition machine further includes a plurality of clamping members, wherein the frame body is provided with a plurality of first through holes, and the second electrode plate is provided with a plurality of first corresponding holes a through hole, each of the clamping members passes through the corresponding first through hole and the second through hole, and clamps the substrate.

In an embodiment of the invention, the carrier includes a substrate carrying area to carry the substrate, and the substrate carrying area covers the body and partially overlaps the frame.

The present invention further provides a carrier that is suitable for use in a thin film deposition machine to carry a substrate. The carrier includes a body that is separable from each other and a frame, wherein the frame is adapted to surround the body.

In an embodiment of the invention, the body is rectangular and the frame is adapted to connect to each side of the body.

In an embodiment of the invention, the frame comprises a plurality of sheets.

In an embodiment of the invention, the edge of the body is provided with a first overlapping portion, and the edge of the frame is provided with a second overlapping portion that cooperates with the first overlapping portion, and the carrier is composed of the body and the frame. A flat plate that is lapped.

In an embodiment of the invention, the carrier includes a substrate carrying area to carry the substrate, and the substrate carrying area covers the body and partially overlaps the frame.

When the carrier of the present invention is used to carry the substrate, the substrate can cover the entire body, so that no film is deposited on the body during the thin film deposition process. Therefore, when the cleaning work of the carrier is performed, only the frame is cleaned, so that the cleaning efficiency of the carrier can be improved to reduce the maintenance cost of the film deposition machine of the present invention. In addition, the substrate can be flatly contacted with the body of the carrier, so that it can be uniformly heated, so that the quality of the film can be improved.

The above and other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will become more <RTIgt;

3 is a schematic view of a thin film deposition machine in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 4 is a top plan view of the carrier of FIG. Referring to FIG. 3 and FIG. 4, the thin film deposition machine 200 of the present embodiment is adapted to bombard the target 60 to deposit a thin film on the substrate 70. The thin film deposition machine 200 is, for example, a sputtering machine including a first electrode plate 210, a second electrode plate 220, and a carrier 300. The second electrode plate 220 is opposite to the first electrode plate 210, the target 60 is disposed on the first electrode plate 210, the carrier 300 is disposed on the second electrode plate 220, and the carrier 300 is adapted to carry the substrate 70. In this embodiment, the first electrode plate 210 is, for example, a cathode plate, and the second electrode plate 220 is, for example, an anode plate, and the second electrode plate 220 can serve as a heating plate to heat the carrier 300.

In the above-mentioned thin film deposition machine 200, an inert gas (such as argon) which is introduced therebetween is ionized by an electric field between the first electrode plate 210 and the second electrode plate 220, and under the action of an electric field, in the gas The positive ions 20 are attracted by the cathode plate (ie, the first electrode plate 210) to accelerate the impact on the target 60 to strike the atoms 62 of the target 60, and the atoms 62 are deposited on the substrate 70 to form a thin film.

In order to improve the problems caused by the conventional carrier, the embodiment is particularly modified for the structure of the carrier 300. The structure of the carrier 300 will be described in detail below.

The carrier 300 of the present embodiment includes a body 310 that can be separated from each other and a frame 320, wherein the frame 320 is adapted to surround the body 310. After the frame 320 is combined with the body 310, for example, a flat plate is formed. The body 310 is, for example, rectangular, and the frame 320 is adapted to connect to each side 311 of the body 310. In addition, the carrier 300 includes a substrate carrying area 302 to carry the substrate 70 described above. The substrate carrying area 302 is, for example, a region surrounded by a broken line in FIG. 4, which covers the body 310 and partially overlaps the frame 320. In more detail, the size of the carrier 300 is designed according to the size of the substrate 70, and the substrate 70 covers, for example, the entire substrate carrying area 302, and the effective utilization area of the substrate 70 overlaps with the body 310, for example. The effective use area is, for example, a display area or a sensing area, and is determined depending on the type of the substrate 70. In this embodiment, when the substrate 70 is disposed on the carrier 300, the periphery of the substrate 70 may exceed the side 311 of the body 310. For example, the circumference of the substrate 70 may exceed the side 311 of the body 310 by about 1 cm, but is not limited thereto. Can be adjusted according to actual needs. In addition, the body 310 and the frame 320 can be respectively provided with a plurality of locking holes 315, 325, so as to be locked into the second electrode plate 220 through the locking holes 315, 325 (not shown) The body 310 and the frame 320 are fixed to the second electrode plate. 220. Furthermore, the body 310 and the frame 320 may be provided with a plurality of through holes (not shown). When the substrate 70 is to be transported, the ejector pins (not shown) of the thin film deposition machine 200 may first pass through the through holes. The substrate 70 is jacked up to facilitate the handling of the substrate 70.

The frame 320 described above includes a plurality of sheets, such as sheets 321 , 322 , 323 , 324 , which are combined, for example, into a rectangular frame to surround the body 310 . In addition, the body 310 and the frame 320 may be made of a material having better thermal conductivity and insulation to conduct heat provided by the second electrode plate 220 to the substrate 70. The material of the body 310 and the frame 320 may be the same, for example, glass. In another embodiment, the material of the body 310 and the frame 320 may be different. For example, the material of the body 310 may be glass, and the material of the frame 320 may be ceramic, aluminum or titanium alloy, wherein the surface of the aluminum plate may be An anodic film is formed, and an industrial plastic film such as a polybenzimidazole (PBI) film may be formed on the surface of the titanium alloy plate.

In the carrier 300 of the embodiment, most of the substrate 70 is located in the body 310, so that it can be in flat contact with the body 310, so that the thermal energy provided by the second electrode plate 220 is uniformly conducted to the substrate 70, thereby improving the deposition. The quality of the film. Moreover, in the substrate carrying area 302, the interface between the frame 320 and the body 310 is located at the edge of the substrate 70, and the effective utilization area of the substrate 70 is overlapped with the body 310, so even if the interface between the frame 320 and the body 310 is not Smooth, still does not have a substantial impact on film quality. In addition, since the substrate 70 covers the entire body 310, when the film deposition process is performed, the film is deposited on the frame 320 of the carrier 300 that is not covered by the substrate 70, and no film is deposited on the body 310. Therefore, when the cleaning work of the carrier 300 is performed, only the frame 320 is cleaned, so that the cleaning efficiency of the carrier 300 can be improved to reduce the maintenance cost of the thin film deposition machine 200 of the present embodiment. In addition, only the frame 230 is liable to be used because of repeated cleaning after repeated cleaning, so that only the new frame 320 needs to be replaced, which further saves the maintenance cost of the film deposition machine 200.

It should be noted that although the frame 320 of the above-mentioned carrier 300 is exemplified by four plate plates 321, 322, 323, and 324, the present invention does not limit the number of plates of the frame. Moreover, in another embodiment, the frame may also be made of only one piece of sheet material.

Figure 5 is a cross-sectional view of a carrier member in accordance with another embodiment of the present invention. Referring to FIG. 5, the carrier 300a of the present embodiment is similar to the carrier 300 described above, and the difference lies in the carrier 300a. The carrier 300a of the present embodiment is a flat plate that is overlapped by the main body 310a and the frame 320b. The edge of the main body 310a is provided with a first overlapping portion 312. The edge of the frame 320a is provided with the first overlapping portion 312. The second overlapping portion 326 is matched to make the body 310a and the frame 320b easier to overlap. In FIG. 5 , the first lap 312 includes, for example, the lap block 313 and the lap groove 314 , and the second lap 326 includes the lap block 327 and the lap groove 328 , wherein the lap block 313 is placed In the groove 328, the lap block 327 is placed in the lap groove 314, and the lap block 313 and the lap block 327 are stacked on each other.

It should be noted that, in this embodiment, the specific structure of the first lap portion and the second lap portion is not limited. In other embodiments, the first lap portion and the second lap portion may also be positioning grooves and Positioning column. In addition, in the embodiment in which the frame comprises a plurality of sheets, each sheet may also be provided with a lap joint for overlapping with another sheet so that adjacent sheets can be overlapped with each other through the lap.

Figure 6 is a cross-sectional view showing a thin film deposition machine of another embodiment of the present invention. Referring to FIG. 6, the thin film deposition machine 200b of the present embodiment further includes a plurality of clamping members 230 in addition to the first electrode plate 210, the second electrode plate 220b, and the carrier 300b. The frame 320b of the carrier 300b is provided with a plurality of first through holes 329, and the second electrode plate 220b is provided with a plurality of second through holes 222 corresponding to the first through holes 329, and each of the clamping members 230 passes through the corresponding The first hole 329 and the second through hole 222 are sandwiched by the substrate 70. As such, the surface 72 of the substrate 70 on which the film is to be formed may be made non-parallel to the ground, such as perpendicular to the ground, during the film deposition process. In addition, the edge of the body 310b of the carrier 300b may be provided with a raised portion 316, and the edge of the substrate 70 bears against the raised portion 316, the arrangement of the raised portion 316 facilitating the clamping member 230 to sandwich the substrate 70.

It should be noted that the protrusion 316 protrudes from the bearing surface 317 of the body 310b by a distance of less than 2 mm. Therefore, after the substrate 70 is slightly deformed, most of the substrate 70 can still contact the bearing surface 317 of the body 310b. Does not affect the quality of the film. In addition, the film deposition machine 200 of FIG. 3 can also use the clamping member 230, but the frame 320 and the second electrode plate 220 need to be provided with corresponding through holes.

In summary, the present invention has at least the following advantages:

1. When the carrier of the present invention is used to carry a substrate, the substrate can cover the entire body and a part of the frame. When the film deposition process is performed, no film is deposited on the body, so when the carrier is cleaned, only the frame is cleaned, so that the cleaning efficiency of the carrier can be improved to reduce the maintenance of the film deposition machine of the present invention. cost.

2. Only the frame is easy to use due to repeated cleaning, so it is only necessary to replace the new frame, which can further save the maintenance cost of the film deposition machine.

3. The effective utilization area of the substrate can flatten the body of the contact carrier, so that it can be uniformly heated, so the quality of film deposition can be improved.

While the present invention has been described in its preferred embodiments, the present invention is not intended to limit the invention, and the present invention may be modified and modified without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. The scope of protection is subject to the definition of the scope of the patent application.

20. . . Positive ions

50, 70. . . Substrate

72. . . surface

60. . . Target

62. . . atom

100. . . Carrier

102. . . region

110. . . Rectangular sheet

200, 200b. . . Thin film deposition machine

210. . . First electrode plate

220, 220b. . . Second electrode plate

222. . . Second through hole

230. . . Clamping piece

300, 300a, 300b. . . Carrier

302. . . Substrate bearing area

310, 310a, 310b. . . Ontology

311. . . Side

312. . . First lap

313, 327. . . Lap block

314, 328. . . Splice slot

315, 325. . . Locking hole

316. . . Raised portion

317. . . Bearing surface

320, 320a, 320b. . . framework

321, 322, 323, 324. . . Plate

326. . . Second lap

329. . . First consistent hole

FIG. 1 is a top plan view showing a carrier carrying substrate of a conventional thin film deposition machine.

2 is a schematic view of the carrier of FIG. 1 for carrying a substrate.

3 is a schematic view of a thin film deposition machine in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

4 is a top plan view of the carrier of FIG. 3.

Figure 5 is a cross-sectional view of a carrier member in accordance with another embodiment of the present invention.

Figure 6 is a cross-sectional view showing a thin film deposition machine of another embodiment of the present invention.

300. . . Carrier

302. . . Substrate bearing area

310. . . Ontology

311. . . Side

315, 325. . . Locking hole

320. . . framework

321, 322, 323, 324. . . Plate

Claims (12)

A thin film deposition machine adapted to bombard a target to deposit a film on a substrate, the film deposition machine comprising: a first electrode plate, the target is disposed on the first electrode plate; and a second electrode plate Opposite to the first electrode plate; and a carrier disposed on the second electrode plate, the carrier is adapted to carry the substrate, and includes a body that is separable from each other and a frame, wherein the frame is adapted to Around the body, wherein the frame comprises a plurality of sheets. The thin film deposition machine of claim 1, wherein the body is rectangular, and the frame is adapted to connect to each side of the body. The thin film deposition machine of claim 1, wherein the body is made of the same material as the frame. The film deposition machine of claim 1, wherein the body is different from the material of the frame. The film deposition machine of claim 1, wherein the edge of the body is provided with a first overlapping portion, and the edge of the frame is provided with a second overlapping portion that cooperates with the first overlapping portion. And the carrier is a flat plate formed by the body and the frame being overlapped. The film deposition machine of claim 1, wherein the body and the frame are respectively provided with a plurality of locking holes for locking to the second electrode plate. The film deposition machine of claim 1, further comprising a plurality of clamping members, wherein the frame body is provided with a plurality of first through holes, and the second electrode plate is provided with corresponding first through holes a plurality of second through holes, each of the clamping members passing through the corresponding first through holes and the second through holes, and clamping the substrate. The thin film deposition machine of claim 1, wherein the carrier comprises a substrate carrying area to carry the substrate, the substrate carrying area covering the body and partially overlapping the frame. A carrier for a film deposition machine for carrying a substrate, the carrier comprising a body separable from each other and a frame, wherein the frame is adapted to surround the body, wherein the frame comprises a plurality of plates . The carrier of claim 9, wherein the body is rectangular and the frame is adapted to connect to each side of the body. The carrier of claim 9, wherein the edge of the body is provided with a first overlapping portion, and the edge of the frame is provided with a second overlapping portion that cooperates with the first overlapping portion, and The carrier is a flat plate that is overlapped by the body and the frame. The carrier of claim 9, comprising a substrate carrying area for carrying the substrate, the substrate carrying area covering the body and partially overlapping the frame.