WO2016204204A1

WO2016204204A1 - Pattern film forming device

Info

Publication number: WO2016204204A1
Application number: PCT/JP2016/067860
Authority: WO
Inventors: 伸明高橋; 赤木　清; 豪清水; 善勝佐藤
Original assignee: コニカミノルタ株式会社; 株式会社アルバック
Priority date: 2015-06-15
Filing date: 2016-06-15
Publication date: 2016-12-22
Also published as: JP6718445B2; JPWO2016204204A1; TW201712133A

Abstract

Provided is a pattern film forming device that, when intermittently conveying a flexible band-like substrate, is capable of suitably detecting substrate markers provided on the substrate at a pattern processing position.　The pattern film forming device (1) is equipped with thin-film forming units (10X), (10Y) each having a first imaging unit (15) for imaging substrate markers provided in each processing region on a substrate (2) and second imaging units (16a), (16b) for imaging the substrate markers at the pattern processing position. A control unit calculates the conveyance distance to the pattern processing position on the basis of the detection results from the first imaging unit (15). By controlling drive rollers (12) on the basis of the conveyance distance, the processing regions corresponding to the substrate markers are conveyed to the pattern processing position, and by controlling a material ejecting unit (17) and a mask (18) on the basis of the detection results from the second imaging units (16a), (16b), film pattern processing is performed on the processing regions.

Description

Pattern deposition system

The present invention relates to a pattern film forming apparatus for manufacturing a thin film base material by, for example, high-precision pattern film formation using a flexible belt-like base material.

In Patent Document 1, a reference mark provided on a substrate that is continuously conveyed is detected by the first alignment system and the second alignment system, and the substrate is based on at least one of the expansion / contraction of the substrate or the conveyance speed and the reference mark. A manufacturing apparatus that performs processing at a predetermined position is described.

International Publication No. 2009/157154

However, in order to perform film pattern processing on the substrate with high accuracy, it is necessary to intermittently convey the substrate and perform film pattern processing on the stopped processing region of the substrate. In this case, the alignment of the film pattern processing is performed by detecting a marker in the vicinity of the processing region of the stopped base material. However, the marker misalignment is caused by the base material stretching, the base material slipping with respect to the transport mechanism, and the like. If accumulated, the position of the marker on the base material at the time of stopping is out of the detection range of the detection mechanism, and there is a possibility that alignment cannot be performed or pattern processing cannot be performed in the processing region. .

The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and suitably detects a substrate marker provided on a substrate at a pattern processing position when intermittently transporting a flexible belt-like substrate. It is an object of the present invention to provide a pattern film forming apparatus that can perform the above process.

The present invention for solving the above-described problems has the following configuration.
1. A pattern film forming apparatus for performing pattern film formation on a flexible belt-like base material, wherein a base material transport unit transports the base material, and a film pattern processing is performed on a processing region of the base material at a pattern processing position. A pattern processing unit to be performed; a first detection unit for detecting a base material marker provided for each processing region on the base material upstream of the pattern processing position; and the base material marker at the pattern processing position And a control unit that controls the base material transport unit and the pattern processing unit, and the control unit is configured so that the base material is stopped. Based on the detection result of the first detection unit, the substrate marker is calculated by calculating a conveyance distance to the pattern processing position and controlling the substrate conveyance unit based on the calculated conveyance distance. By transporting the corresponding processing region to the pattern processing position and controlling the pattern processing unit based on the detection result of the second detection unit in a state where the substrate is stopped, a film pattern is formed in the processing region. A pattern film forming apparatus characterized by performing processing.
2. The pattern processing unit is provided between a material emitting unit that emits a thin film material to be subjected to film pattern processing to the processing region of the substrate, and between the material emitting unit and the substrate. A mask for performing pattern processing; and a mask driving unit that moves the mask, wherein the mask is provided with a mask marker, and the second detection unit includes the substrate marker and the mask By detecting a marker, the control unit controls the mask driving unit based on a detection result of the second detection unit in a state in which the substrate is stopped, whereby the processing region of the mask and the substrate The thin film material is emitted to the processing region of the base material via the aligned mask by controlling the material emitting portion. Pattern film forming apparatus according to the 1 that.
3. 3. The pattern film forming apparatus according to 1 or 2, further comprising an accumulator that includes a plurality of the processing units and that absorbs a shift in a transport distance of the base material between the adjacent processing units. .
4). 4. The pattern film forming apparatus according to any one of 1 to 3, further comprising a meandering correction unit that corrects meandering in the width direction of the base material.

According to the present invention, the substrate marker provided on the substrate can be suitably detected at the pattern processing position when intermittently transporting the flexible belt-like substrate.

It is a schematic diagram which shows the thin film base material manufacturing apparatus which concerns on embodiment of this invention. It is a block diagram which shows the thin film base material manufacturing apparatus which concerns on embodiment of this invention. (A) is a side view schematically showing the base material, the first imaging unit, the second imaging unit, and the mask, and (b) is a plan view schematically showing the base material and the mask. It is a schematic diagram which shows the operation example of a meandering correction | amendment part. (A)-(d) is a schematic diagram for demonstrating the method of conveying a base material by calculating conveyance distance based on the imaging | photography result of a 1st imaging | photography part.

Embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings as appropriate, taking as an example the case of applying the pattern film forming apparatus of the present invention to a thin film substrate manufacturing apparatus for manufacturing a thin film substrate. In the following description, directions such as “upstream / downstream” are based on the base material that is moved by the thin film base material manufacturing apparatus. That is, the direction in which the base material travels is “downstream”.

First, the configuration of a thin film substrate manufacturing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described. FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram showing a thin film substrate manufacturing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a thin film substrate manufacturing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

<Thin film substrate manufacturing equipment>
As shown in FIG. 1, a thin film substrate manufacturing apparatus 1 according to an embodiment of the present invention is an apparatus for manufacturing a thin film substrate by patterning a thin film on a substrate 2. The thin film substrate manufacturing apparatus 1 includes thin

film forming units

10X and 10Y, a meandering correction unit 20, and

gate valves

30X and 30Y. Further, as shown in FIG. 2, the thin film substrate manufacturing apparatus 1 includes a roller driving unit 41, a mask driving unit 42, a touch plate driving unit 43, and a meandering correction unit 20 provided for each of the thin

film forming units

10X and 10Y. The

roller drive parts

44a and 44b provided, the valve body drive part 45 provided for every

gate valve

30X and 30Y, and the control part 50 which controls these each drive part are provided.

In addition, the thin film base material manufacturing apparatus 1 may be provided with three or more thin film formation parts, and may be provided with the formation part which forms films other than the thin film formed into a pattern. Moreover, the method of forming a thin film on the base material 2 is not limited to what is described later.

<Thin film forming part>
As shown in FIG. 1, the thin film forming portions 10 X and 10 Y are examples of processing portions, and form a thin film in a pattern on a thin film forming region 2 c on a flexible belt-like substrate 2. These thin

film forming portions

10X and 10Y are provided in order of the thin film forming portion 10X and the thin film forming portion 10Y from the upstream side.
The thin

film forming units

10X and 10Y include a chamber 11, a driving roller 12a, a touch roller 12b, driven

rollers

13a and 13b, a dancer roller 14, a first imaging unit 15, and a second imaging unit 16a, respectively. , 16b, a material emitting portion 17, a mask 18, and a touch plate 19.
Note that the inside of the chamber 11 of the thin

film forming units

10X and 10Y can be maintained at a high vacuum by a vacuum suction unit (not shown). The downstream end of the chamber 11 of the thin film forming unit 10X and the upstream end of the chamber 11 of the thin film forming unit 10Y communicate with each other so that the substrate 2 can be conveyed.

The driving roller 12 a is provided in the chamber 11. The touch roller 12 b is a driven roller provided at a position facing the drive roller 12 a in the chamber 11. The substrate 2 is sandwiched between the drive roller 12a and the touch roller 12b.
The control unit 50 shown in FIG. 2 controls the roller driving unit 41 to rotate the driving roller 12a and convey the base material 2 from the upstream side to the downstream side.
The drive roller 12 a, the touch roller 12 b, and the roller drive unit 41 constitute an example of a base material transport unit that transports the base material 2.

As shown in FIG. 1, the driven

rollers

13 a and 13 b are provided on the downstream side of the driving roller 12 a in the chamber 11. The lower surface of the base material 2 is wound around the driven

rollers

13a and 13b.

The dancer roller 14 is provided between the driven

rollers

13 a and 13 b in the chamber 11. The upper surface of the substrate 2 is wound around the dancer roller 14. The dancer roller 14 is movable in a direction close to the driven

rollers

13a and 13b and a direction away from the driven

rollers

13a and 13b.

The driven

rollers

13 a and 13 b and the dancer roller 14 constitute an example of an accumulator that absorbs the deviation in the transport distance of the base material 2. For example, the dancer roller 14 of the thin film forming unit 10X has a longer transport distance of the base material 2 in the thin film forming unit 10X and a shorter transport distance of the base material 2 in the thin film forming unit 10Y than the driven

rollers

13a and 13b. To move away from each other to absorb the shift in the transport distance of the substrate 2. Further, when the transport distance of the base material 2 in the thin film forming portion 10X is short and the transport distance of the base material 2 in the thin film forming portion 10Y is long, the base material 2 moves in the direction approaching the driven

rollers

13a and 13b. Absorbs the deviation of the transport distance of 2.

The first imaging unit 15 has a processing region (in this embodiment, a thin film) on the upstream side of the pattern processing position (in this embodiment, the pattern film formation position, that is, the position where the processing region is above the mask 18). It is an example of the 1st detection part which detects the base-material marker 2b provided in the base material 2 for every formation area 2c). The first imaging unit 15 is a camera provided on the upstream side of the driving roller 12a in the chamber 11, and images the substrate marker 2b (see FIG. 3) provided on the substrate 2, and the imaging result. Is output to the control unit 50.

As shown in FIG. 1, the

second imaging units

16 a and 16 b are second detection units that detect the

base material markers

2 a and 2 b at the pattern film formation position (that is, the position where the processing region is above the mask 18). It is an example. The

second imaging units

16a and 16b are cameras provided on the downstream side of the driving roller 12a in the chamber 11, and the

base material markers

2a and 2b provided on the base material 2 (see FIG. 3B). ) And

mask markers

18 a and 18 b (see FIG. 3B) provided on the mask 18, and the imaging result is output to the control unit 50.

As shown in FIG. 3B, the

base material markers

2a and 2b of the base material 2 are arranged at positions that are diagonal to the thin film formation region 2c. That is, the plurality of substrate markers 2a are provided at one end in the width direction of the substrate 2, and the plurality of substrate markers 2b are provided at the other end in the width direction of the substrate 2. The

base material markers

2 a and 2 b corresponding to the thin film formation region 2 c are arranged so as to be shifted in the traveling direction of the base material 2. The first photographing unit 15 photographs the base material marker 2 b provided on the upstream side among the

base material markers

2 a and 2 b of the base material 2.

The

mask markers

18 a and 18 b of the mask 18 are disposed at diagonal positions of the mask 18.

The second imaging unit 16a images the substrate marker 2a corresponding to the mask marker 18a of the mask 18 and the thin film formation region 2c located above the mask 18. Further, the second imaging unit 16b images the mask marker 18b of the mask 18 and the substrate marker 2b corresponding to the thin film formation region 2c located above the mask 18. The first photographing unit 15 photographs the substrate marker 2b on the upstream side of the substrate marker 2b photographed by the second photographing unit 16b. Further, the distance between the centers of the first imaging unit 15 and the second imaging unit 16b in the substrate conveyance direction of the imaging result is set to L. The distance L is also the distance between the first imaging unit 15 and the second imaging unit 16b (see FIG. 5).

The material emitting unit 17 is provided between the driving roller 12 a and the driven roller 13 a in the chamber 11 and below the base material 2.
The control unit 50 shown in FIG. 2 controls the material emitting unit 17 to emit a thin film material (for example, evaporated material) to the lower surface of the substrate 2 through the mask 18.

The mask 18 is provided between the driving roller 12 a and the driven roller 13 a in the chamber 11 and below the base material 2 and between the base material 2 and the material emitting portion 17.
The control unit 50 shown in FIG. 2 moves the mask 18 by controlling the mask driving unit 42.

The touch plate 19 is provided between the driving roller 12 a and the driven roller 13 a in the chamber 11 and at a position facing the mask 18 through the base material 2.
The control unit 50 shown in FIG. 2 moves the touch plate 19 by controlling the touch plate driving unit 43.
The material emitting unit 17, the mask 18, the touch plate 19, the mask driving unit 42, and the touch plate driving unit 43 constitute an example of a pattern processing unit that performs film pattern processing on the substrate 2 at the pattern processing position.

<Meandering correction unit>
As shown in FIG. 1, the meandering correction unit 20 corrects the meandering of the base material 2. The meandering correction unit 20 is provided on the downstream side of the thin film forming unit 10Y.
The meandering correction unit 20 includes a chamber 21, driven

rollers

21a, 21b, 21c, and 21d, meandering

correction rollers

22a and 22b, and a meandering detection unit 23.

The driven

rollers

21 a, 21 b, 21 c, 21 d are provided in the chamber 21. The upper surface of the substrate 2 is wound around the driven

rollers

21a and 21c, and the lower surface of the substrate 2 is wound around the driven rollers 21b and 21d.

The

meandering correction rollers

22 a and 22 b are driven rollers provided between the driven rollers 21 b and 21 c in the chamber 21. The upper surface of the base material 2 is wound around the meandering

correction rollers

22a and 22b.

The meandering detection unit 23 is a capacitance sensor provided between the

meandering correction rollers

22a and 22b in the chamber 21, and detects the position of the base material 2 (specifically, the position in the width direction) as shown in FIG. The detection result is output to the control unit 50 as the detection result of the meandering of the substrate 2.
The control unit 50 shown in FIG. 2 drives the

roller driving units

44a and 44b based on the detection result of the meandering detection unit 23, thereby, as shown in FIG. The inclination of the axial direction of 22b is changed and the meandering of the base material 2 is corrected.

<Gate valve>
As shown in FIG. 1, the

gate valves

30X and 30Y are provided between adjacent chambers, and are opened (pseudo-sealed) by sandwiching the base material 2 and sealing (pseudo-sealing) the base material 2. It is a valve that can be switched between a closed valve state that maintains the vacuum state. The gate valve 30 X is provided between the chamber 11 of the thin film forming unit 10 X and a chamber upstream of the chamber 11. That is, the gate valve 30X is a valve capable of sealing the inlet of the base material 2 in the thin film forming unit 10X. The gate valve 30 Y is provided between the chamber 11 of the thin film forming unit 10 Y and the chamber 21 of the meandering correction unit 20. That is, the gate valve 30Y is a valve capable of sealing the outlet of the base material 2 in the thin film forming unit 10Y (in other words, the inlet of the base material 2 in the chamber 21 of the meandering correction unit 20).
The control part 50 shown in FIG. 2 moves the valve body 32 by controlling the valve body drive part 45, and switches the

gate valves

30X and 30Y between the valve opening state and the valve closing state.

<Method for producing thin film substrate>
Then, the manufacturing method of the thin film base material by the thin film base material manufacturing apparatus 1 is demonstrated with reference to FIG.1 and FIG.2. First, the control unit 50 rotates the driving roller 12a by controlling the roller driving unit 41 of the thin

film forming units

10X and 10Y in a state where the

gate valves

30X and 30Y are opened, and the base material 2 is moved from the upstream side. After transporting downstream by a predetermined distance (an integral multiple of L shown in FIG. 5) and moving the most downstream base material marker 2b to the imaging region of the first imaging unit 15, the drive roller 12a is stopped, and the base The material 2 is stopped (first base material conveyance step).

Subsequently, the control unit 50 calculates the transport distance of the base material 2 based on the imaging result of the first imaging unit 15 in each of the thin

film forming units

10X and 10Y (a transport distance calculating step).
For example, as shown in FIG. 5A, when the base material marker 2b photographed by the first photographing unit 15 is shifted by d1 upstream from the base material conveyance direction center of the photographing result, The control unit 50 sets the next transport distance of the base material 2 to L + d1.
Further, as shown in FIG. 5C, when the base material marker 2b photographed by the first photographing unit 15 is shifted by d2 downstream from the center of the photographing result in the base material conveyance direction, The control unit 50 sets the next transport distance of the base material 2 to Ld2.

Subsequently, the control unit 50 controls the roller driving unit 41 in each of the thin

film forming units

10X and 10Y to rotate the driving roller 12a, thereby transporting the base material 2 from the upstream side to the downstream side. After transporting only the distance, the driving roller 12a is stopped and the base material 2 is stopped (second base material transport process).
For example, as shown in FIG. 5A, when the base material marker 2b is shifted by d1 upstream, the control unit 50 controls the roller driving unit 41 to move the base material 2 to the transport distance L + d1. (See FIG. 5B). With this operation, the

second imaging units

16a and 16b can reliably image the

base material markers

2a and 2b.
5C, when the base material marker 2b is shifted by d2 downstream, the control unit 50 controls the roller driving unit 41 to move the base material 2 to the transport distance L. -Transport only d2 (see FIG. 5D). With this operation, the

second imaging units

16a and 16b can reliably image the

base material markers

2a and 2b.

Subsequently, the control unit 50 controls the valve body driving unit 45 of the

gate valves

30X and 30Y to close the

gate valves

30X and 30Y, and the inlet of the base material 2 and the thin film in the chamber 11 of the thin film forming unit 10X. The outlet of the base material 2 in the chamber 12 of the forming unit 10Y is sealed (valve closing step).

Subsequently, the control unit 50 moves the mask 18 by controlling the mask driving unit 42 based on the imaging results of the

second imaging units

16a and 16b in each of the thin

film forming units

10X and 10Y. After the alignment between the base plate 2 and the base material 2, the mask drive unit 42 and the touch plate drive unit 43 are controlled to bring the mask 18, the base material 2 and the touch plate 19 into close contact (positioning step). . In the present embodiment, in the alignment step, the control unit 50 controls the mask driving unit 42 to move the mask 18 so that the

mask markers

18a and 18b are adjacent to the

substrate markers

2a and 2b, respectively ( (Refer FIG.3 (b)).
Subsequently, the control unit 50 controls the material emitting unit 17 in each of the thin film forming units 10 X and 10 Y to emit the thin film material to the lower surface of the base material 2 through the mask 18 that has been aligned. Then, a patterned thin film is formed on the lower surface of the substrate 2 (for example, an evaporated organic material is deposited on the lower surface of the substrate 2) (thin film patterning step).
Subsequently, the control unit 50 controls the mask driving unit 42 and the touch plate driving unit 43 to release the close contact between the mask 18, the base material 2, and the touch plate 19.

In addition, the control unit 50 described above regarding the base material marker 2b corresponding to the thin film forming region 2c on the upstream side of the thin film forming region 2c conveyed onto the mask 18 simultaneously with the valve closing step to the thin film patterning step. A conveyance distance calculation process is performed. The transport distance calculated here is used in the next second base material transport process.

Subsequently, the control unit 50 opens the

gate valves

30X and 30Y by controlling the valve body driving unit 45 in each of the

gate valves

30X and 30Y (valve opening process). The controller 50 returns to the above-described second base material transport step after the valve opening step, and manufactures the thin film base material by repeatedly executing the above steps.

Here, when elongation or the like occurs in the base material 2, there may be a difference between the transport distance calculated in the thin film forming unit 10X and the transport distance calculated in the thin film forming unit 10Y. In such a case, the dancer roller 14 of the thin film forming unit 10X absorbs the shift in the transport distance.

Since the thin film substrate manufacturing apparatus 1 according to the embodiment of the present invention calculates the transport distance of the substrate 2 based on the imaging result of the substrate marker 2b on the upstream side of the pattern processing position, the processing region at the pattern processing position Deviation in the substrate transport direction can be prevented.
Moreover, since the thin film base material manufacturing apparatus 1 is provided with the dancer roller 14 (accumulation) between adjacent 10X and 10Y, it can absorb the shift | offset | difference of a conveyance distance.
Moreover, since the thin film base material manufacturing apparatus 1 includes the meandering correction unit 20, it is possible to prevent the processing region (thin film formation region 2c) in the base material width direction from being shifted at the pattern processing position.

As mentioned above, although embodiment of this invention was described, this invention is not limited to the said embodiment, In the range which does not deviate from the summary of this invention, it can change suitably. For example, the thin film may be an organic thin film or an inorganic thin film. That is, the processing section is not limited to the above-described thin

film forming sections

10X and 10Y, and may be a film pattern process for a thin film (electrode or the like) other than the organic thin film. Further, the film pattern processing is not limited to the one in which the evaporating material or the like is emitted toward the base material 2 through the mask 18, and a laser beam is applied to the thin film previously formed on the base material 2 through the mask 18. , And pattern processing may be performed by removing a predetermined portion of the thin film. Further, the shape of the mask 18 and the relative positional relationship between the

base material markers

2a and 2b of the base material 2 and the

mask markers

18a and 18b of the mask 18 are not limited to those illustrated. Further, the meandering detection unit 23 is not limited to a capacitance sensor, and may be a linear sensor or the like.

1 Thin film substrate manufacturing equipment (pattern film forming equipment)
2

Base material

2a, 2b

Base material marker

10X, 10Y Thin film formation part (processing part)
12a Drive roller (base material transport unit)
13a, 13b Follower roller (Accum)
14 Dancer Roller (Accum)
15 First imaging unit (first detection unit)
16a, 16b Second imaging unit (second detection unit)
17 Material emitting part 18

Mask

18a, 18b Mask marker 20 Meander correction part 42 Mask drive part 50 Control part

Claims

A pattern film forming apparatus for forming a film on a flexible belt-shaped substrate,
A base material transport unit for transporting the base material;
A pattern processing unit that performs film pattern processing on the processing region of the substrate at a pattern processing position;
On the upstream side of the pattern processing position, a first detection unit for detecting a base material marker provided for each processing region on the base material,
A second detection unit for detecting the substrate marker at the pattern processing position;
A processing unit having
A control unit for controlling the substrate transport unit and the pattern processing unit;
With
The controller is
Based on the detection result of the first detection unit in a state where the base material is stopped, the transport distance to the pattern processing position is calculated,
By controlling the substrate transport unit based on the calculated transport distance, the processing region corresponding to the substrate marker is transported to the pattern processing position,
A pattern film forming apparatus that performs film pattern processing on the processing region by controlling the pattern processing unit based on a detection result of the second detection unit in a state where the base material is stopped.
The pattern processing section is
A material emitting portion for emitting a thin film material to be subjected to film pattern processing to the processing region of the base material;
Provided between the material emitting portion and the base material, and a mask for performing film pattern processing;
A mask driver for moving the mask;
With
The mask is provided with a mask marker,
The second detection unit detects the substrate marker and the mask marker,
The control unit is configured to align the mask and the processing region of the base material by controlling the mask driving unit based on a detection result of the second detection unit in a state where the base material is stopped. The material of the thin film is emitted to the processing region of the base material through the mask that has been aligned by performing and controlling the material emitting unit. Pattern deposition system.
A plurality of the processing units;
The pattern film forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein an accumulator that absorbs a shift in a conveyance distance of the base material is provided between the adjacent processing units.
The pattern film forming apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 3, further comprising a meandering correction unit that corrects meandering in the width direction of the base material.