CN101469415B - Plasma-assisted organic thin film deposition device - Google Patents

Abstract

The invention provides a plasma-assisted organic thin film deposition device, which is mainly composed of a plasma generating chamber and a deposition chamber. The plasma generating chamber can thermally decompose polymerizable material gas in the plasma generating chamber by plasma; the deposition chamber is connected with the plasma generating chamber to receive the thermally decomposed polymerizable material gas, and the deposition chamber comprises a substrate device, on which the thermally decomposed polymerizable material gas can be deposited to form an organic thin film; since the plasma generating chamber is separated from the deposition chamber, a low-temperature thin film deposition process can be provided, and plasma ions can be prevented from directly impacting the substrate; in addition, a flow guide device can be arranged at the outlet end of the plasma generating chamber to generate a flow guide or turbulence effect on the polymerizable material gas to prevent excessive concentration at the outlet end or the center of the substrate, thereby effectively improving the surface roughness of the organic thin film and enhancing its uniformity.

Description

Plasma Assisted Organic Thin Film Deposition Device

technical field

The invention relates to a plasma-assisted organic thin film deposition device, in particular to an organic thin film deposition device in which a plasma generation chamber is separated from a deposition chamber.

Background technique

Because the OLED (Organic Light Emitting Diode) display panel easily absorbs moisture in the air, its service life is short, and it cannot compete with LCD panels, resulting in widespread obstacles in the market expansion of OLED products; while polymer organic films and inorganic films With the construction of multi-layer film, it can effectively reduce the chance of moisture ingress and prolong the life of OLED products.

Parylene organic film can form a pinhole-free film layer, which has excellent water and oxygen blocking characteristics. The material is colorless and highly transparent, has extremely high dielectric strength, and is resistant to rust, corrosion, weathering, etc.; At present, the general parylene (Parylene) coating method is to introduce the powdery material into the deposition chamber after vaporization (150°C) and cracking (650°C), and vapor deposition (CVD) at room temperature However, the surface uniformity and roughness of the organic thin film formed in this way are not uniform.

For patents, such as the early publication of US Patent No. US 20050000435 "Reactor for producing reactive intermediates for low dielectric constant polymer thin films", and US Patent No. 5958510 "Method and apparatus for forming a thin polymer layer on an integrated circuit strategy" , the organic thin film process proposed by these two patents is cracked outside the thin film deposition chamber, and then the plasma is used to break the chain inside the thin film deposition chamber. Its main function is to manufacture organic thin films with low dielectric coefficient, Increase the film deposition rate and improve the thermomechanical properties of the film, but did not mention improving the uniformity and roughness of the organic film; it is worth noting that the plasma-assisted process is carried out in the substrate and chamber of the film deposition, not only the film The temperature of the deposition process is high, and because the plasma ions directly hit the substrate, the quality and life of the organic thin film are affected.

Contents of the invention

The purpose of the present invention is to provide a plasma-assisted organic thin film deposition device, which can avoid direct impact of plasma ions on the substrate, and can provide a low-temperature thin film deposition process to effectively improve the surface roughness and uniformity of the organic thin film.

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention proposes a plasma-assisted organic thin film deposition device, which is mainly composed of a plasma generation chamber and a deposition chamber, the plasma generation chamber can plasma thermally crack the polymerizable material gas; the deposition chamber communicates with the plasma generation chamber to receive the thermally decomposed polymerizable material gas, the deposition chamber includes a substrate device, and the substrate device can deposit the thermally decomposed polymerizable material gas on it to form an organic thin film.

The beneficial effect of the present invention is that by separating the plasma generation chamber from the deposition chamber, a low-temperature thin film deposition process is provided, and plasma ions are prevented from directly hitting the substrate, and the surface roughness and uniformity of the organic thin film can be effectively improved.

The present invention will be described in detail below in conjunction with the accompanying drawings and specific embodiments, but not as a limitation of the present invention.

Description of drawings

Fig. 1 is a schematic structural view of an embodiment of the present invention;

Fig. 2 is a three-dimensional schematic view of the flow guiding device of the present invention in cooperation with the plasma generation chamber;

3 is a schematic perspective view of a long cylindrical plasma generation chamber without a guide device;

4 is a schematic perspective view of a rectangular plasma generation chamber without a guide device;

Fig. 5 is a comparison diagram of the concentration difference ratio of different outlet ports of the plasma generation chamber of the present invention on the substrate;

Fig. 6 is a schematic structural diagram of another embodiment of the present invention.

Among them, reference signs

1, 1a, 1b, 1c - plasma generation chamber

11-Intake device

12, 12a, 12b, 12c - outlet port

14, 14a, 14b, 14c - deflector

141, 141a-retracted end

142, 142a-expansion end

2- Deposition chamber

21- Substrate device

211-support device

212-shaft

213-Drive motor

3- Evaporation chamber

31 - input pipeline

4- Mass flow rate control

5- Radio Frequency (RF) Generator

6- Working gas intake device

61, 62, 63 - input pipeline

611, 621, 631-flow controller

7-substrate

8-pump device

9- Cooling resistor

10- Lysis chamber

Detailed ways

In order to have a further understanding of the purpose, structure, features, and functions of the present invention, it will be described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings and examples, but the following drawings and examples are only for auxiliary illustrations, and the present invention is not limited to the accompanying drawings and examples.

Please refer to the embodiment shown in FIG. 1 , the plasma-assisted organic thin film deposition device provided by the present invention mainly includes a plasma generation chamber 1 and a deposition chamber 2 .

The plasma generation chamber 1 communicates with an evaporation chamber 3, and the evaporation chamber 3 has an input pipe 31 through which argon (Ar) can be input to carry evaporated parylene, para Polymerizable materials such as toluene (paraxylylene) or poly-p-phenylene dimethylene (PPX) enter the plasma generation chamber 1, and the polymerizable material is evaporated in the evaporation chamber 3 into a polymerizable material gas input into the plasma In the generation chamber 1, usually, the operating temperature in the evaporation chamber 3 is about 130-170 degrees Celsius; a mass flow rate controller 4 can be set between the evaporation chamber 3 and the plasma generation chamber 1 to control The flow rate of the vaporized polymerizable material gas in the evaporation chamber 3 flowing into the plasma generation chamber 1 .

The plasma generation chamber 1 is provided with an air inlet device 11 and an outlet port 12, the air inlet device 11 is arranged under the center of a flow guiding device 14, the air inlet device 11 is a hollow ceramic tube, the ceramic The tube is sleeved at the bottom of the flow guide device 14, and the function of the flow guide device 14 will be described later; the air inlet device 11 forms a passage with the inside of the plasma generation chamber 1 and the outlet port 12; moreover, The plasma generation chamber 1 is connected with a radio frequency (RF) generator 5 and a working gas inlet device 6, and the energy is supplied by the radio frequency (RF) generator 5, so that the gas in the working gas inlet device 6 enters the plasma to generate The chamber is formed to generate a plasma source, and the radio frequency (RF) generator 5 can provide energy to an inductively coupled plasma source (ICP), and the plasma formation area covers an inlet device 11, as shown in the figure, the working gas inlet device 6 has three input pipelines 61, 62, 63, and the three input pipelines 61, 62, 63 are respectively connected to a flow controller 611, 621, 631, so that different working fluids can be input, such as argon (Ar), oxygen (O2 ) and nitrogen (N2), etc., and control the flow rate of the working fluid through the corresponding flow controllers 611, 621, 631; , the flow rate of gas flowing into the intake device 11 is controlled by the mass flow rate controller 4, because the plasma formation area includes the intake device 11, and the intake device 11 is bombarded by plasma to generate high temperature, so the gas passing into the intake device 11 is The gas is cracked at this high temperature, and the gas undergoes plasma thermal dissociation in the plasma generation chamber 1 .

Regarding the deposition chamber 2, it is arranged above the plasma generation chamber 1 and communicates with the plasma generation chamber 1, and can be used to receive the polymerizable material gas thermally decomposed by the plasma generation chamber 1; the deposition chamber 2 includes A substrate device 21, the substrate device 21 includes a supporting device 211, a rotating shaft 212, the bottom of the supporting device 211 is used to set the substrate 7 for forming an organic thin film, the rotating shaft 212 is connected to a driving motor 213, driven by the driving motor 213 The rotation of the rotating shaft 212 can synchronously drive the rotation of the substrate 7. At the same time, when the polymerizable material gas thermally decomposed by the plasma generation chamber 1 rises to the substrate 7, an organic film can be deposited on the surface of the substrate 7 to form an organic film; It is noted that the supporting device 211 is not limited to a specific type, it is sufficient to allow the substrate 7 to be disposed at the bottom thereof, and the rotating device formed by the rotating shaft 212 and the driving motor 213 is intended to drive the supporting device 211 to rotate, and then drive the base plate 7 to rotate synchronously, therefore, the rotating shaft 212 and the drive motor 213 can be replaced by other devices, such as the drive motor 213 can be replaced by crawlers, belts or gears, and the rotating shaft 212 can be replaced by relative track wheels, pulleys or gears, As long as the purpose of driving the supporting device 211 to rotate can be achieved, this is a well-known technology familiar to those skilled in the art, and will not be repeated here.

The deposition chamber 2 communicates with a pump device 8 again, and the deposition chamber 2 and the plasma

Through the above structure, it can be concluded that the method for depositing an organic thin film of the present invention mainly includes the following two steps:

1. The gas inlet device 11 is impacted by plasma ions, and the polymerizable material gas is sent into the plasma generation chamber 1 for plasma pyrolysis; the gas inlet device 11 can be heated to about 600-900 degrees Celsius by the plasma for thermal Cracking, the material after thermal cracking uses the particles with energy in the plasma and the electrons to break the bond of the material irregularly, and then send it into the deposition chamber 2;

2. The polymerizable material gas after thermal cracking enters the deposition chamber 2 and deposits an organic thin film on the substrate 7; due to the separation of the plasma generation chamber 1 and the deposition chamber 2, the thin film deposition process is far away from the plasma pyrolysis process, so the temperature of the working environment in the deposition chamber 2 can be controlled at about 80-100 degrees Celsius, which is the most suitable low-temperature process temperature for organic film deposition, and at the same time can avoid direct impact of plasma ions on the substrate 7; as for the deposition The rotatable substrate device 21 provided in the chamber 2 is beneficial to improve the roughness and uniformity of the film.

Regarding the above-mentioned problem of improving film roughness and uniformity, it can also be achieved by controlling the uniformity of the polymerizable material gas sent out from the outlet end 12 of the plasma generation chamber 1; as shown in Figure 1, in the plasma generation chamber The outlet end 12 of 1 is provided with a guide device 14, the air inlet device 11 is arranged below the center of the guide device 14, the guide device 14 is a cone-shaped device, and the cone-shaped device has a retracted end 141 and a The expansion end 142, the retracting end 141 faces the plasma generation chamber 1, and the expansion end 142 faces the deposition chamber 2; when the polymerizable material gas passing through the thermal cracking of the inlet device 11 and the plasma chamber 1 enters through the outlet port 12 When the deposition chamber 2 passes through the flow guiding device 14, the gas flow angle of the polymerizable material gas can be adjusted through the setting of the expansion end 142, so that the polymerizable material gas can be guided around, avoiding being concentrated in the center of the outlet end 12 and sprayed toward the substrate 7, At the same time, with the rotatable substrate device 21, the uniformity of organic thin film deposition can be effectively improved; It is sufficient to open the outlet port 12 and be able to smoothly enter the plasma generation chamber 1 .

For the three-dimensional implementation of the above-mentioned flow guiding device, please refer to the embodiment shown in FIG. 1a is in the shape of a long cylinder, and its outlet end 12a is provided with a guide device 14a, and an air inlet device 11a is arranged below the center of the guide device 14a to communicate with the inside of the plasma generation chamber 1a and the outlet end 12a; The cylindrical plasma generated by the plasma generation chamber 1a has a guide device 14a at its outlet end 12a, and the cylindrical plasma generated by the plasma generation chamber 1b shown in Figure 3 has no guide device 14a at its outlet end 12b. The flow device 14a, and the rectangular plasma generated by the plasma generation chamber 1c shown in FIG. The plasma generating chamber 1c has a strip-shaped outlet 12c; experiments have proved that at the same flow rate of the polymeric material gas, the plasma generating chamber 1a provided with the flow guiding device 14a has a relatively average concentration difference rate. As shown in Figure 5, the curve A represents the plasma generation chamber 1a that is provided with the flow guiding device 14a as shown in Figure 2, the curve B represents the plasma generation chamber 1b with the circular outlet end 12b as shown in Figure 3, and the curve C represents the plasma generation chamber 1b shown in Figure 3. 3 shows a plasma generation chamber 1c with a strip-shaped outlet end 12c; wherein, the curve A is shown in the width from the center of the substrate (the origin of the X-axis) to 0.2 meters from the substrate, and can maintain a relatively gentle concentration difference rate; and The curve B then shows that the concentration difference rate at the outlet end of the circular hole is higher than that at the square outlet end of the curve C; Strip shape or any geometric shape, the shape of the flow guide device is not limited to cone shape, the focus is to guide or disturb the flow of polymerizable material gas through the setting of the flow guide device, so as to avoid excessive concentration on the outlet end or the substrate center.

In summary, the plasma-assisted organic thin film deposition device provided by the present invention is characterized in that the plasma generation chamber is separated from the deposition chamber, so a low-temperature thin film deposition process can be provided, and plasma ions can be avoided from directly hitting the substrate, which can Effectively improve the surface roughness of the organic film and enhance its uniformity; moreover, another feature of the present invention is to use plasma to thermally crack the polymerizable material gas, so the setting of the cracking chamber can be omitted, and the equipment can be simplified. Considering the dissociation speed, a cracking chamber can also be set as required, please refer to the embodiment shown in Figure 6, which is characterized in that a cracking chamber 10 is arranged between the evaporation chamber 3 and the mass flow rate controller 4, through The cracking chamber 10 receives the evaporated polymerizable material gas from the evaporation chamber 3, and performs early cracking of the polymerizable material gas. Its effect is to increase the cracking speed and shorten the deposition time of the organic film; The effect that can be realized is the same as that of the embodiment shown in FIG. 1 , and reference may be made to the description of the embodiment in FIG. 1 .

Certainly, the present invention also can have other multiple embodiments, without departing from the spirit and essence of the present invention, those skilled in the art can make various corresponding changes and deformations according to the present invention, but these corresponding changes All changes and modifications should belong to the scope of protection of the appended claims of the present invention.

Claims (16)

1. a plasma auxiliary organic thin film deposition apparatus is characterized in that, comprises:

One plasma body generating chamber is in order to carry out thermo-cracking to the polymerizable material gas in this plasma body generating chamber;

One sediment chamber, separate setting with this plasma body generating chamber connection and with this plasma body generating chamber, in order to receive this polymerizable material gas of thermo-cracking, this sediment chamber comprises a board device, this board device has a rotatable substrate, and this board device can supply the polymerizable material gas aggradation of this thermo-cracking thereon to form organic film;

Wherein, this plasma body generating chamber has an exit end, this exit end is provided with a guiding device, this guiding device is a taper device, this taper device has contract in one end and an expansion end, and the end that contracts in this is towards this plasma body generating chamber, and this expansion end is towards this sediment chamber, and this exit end can for the polymerizable material gas of this thermo-cracking by and flow into this sediment chamber, the cross section of this exit end can be rounded, long strip shape or random geometry.

2. plasma auxiliary organic thin film deposition apparatus according to claim 1 is characterized in that, this plasma body generating chamber is communicated with an evaporator room, and it is polymerizable material gas that this evaporator room can evaporate polymerizable material.

3. plasma auxiliary organic thin film deposition apparatus according to claim 1, it is characterized in that, this plasma body generating chamber is communicated with a working gas diffuser, and this working gas diffuser is imported this plasma body generating chamber in order to the working gas that the plasma body thermo-cracking is required.

4. plasma auxiliary organic thin film deposition apparatus according to claim 1 is characterized in that, this plasma body generating chamber connects a radio frequency generators, supplies with plasma source by this radio frequency generators, makes plasma source import this plasma body generating chamber.

5. plasma auxiliary organic thin film deposition apparatus according to claim 1 is characterized in that, the board device of this sediment chamber comprises:

One supporting device, its bottom be in order to being provided with this rotatable substrate of moulding organic film, and this plasma body generating chamber of this substrate distance and this sediment chamber are communicated with place's certain distance;

One swivel arrangement is connected with this supporting device, in order to drive this supporting device rotation of this supporting device.

6. plasma auxiliary organic thin film deposition apparatus according to claim 1 is characterized in that this sediment chamber is communicated with a pumping unit, and this pumping unit is in order to produce suction force to this sediment chamber and this plasma body generating chamber.

7. plasma auxiliary organic thin film deposition apparatus according to claim 1 is characterized in that, is provided with a cooling between this pumping unit and this sediment chamber and hinders but device, in order to catch not film forming polymerizable material gas residual in this sediment chamber.

8. plasma auxiliary organic thin film deposition apparatus according to claim 1 is characterized in that, this polymerizable material can be polyphenylene ethyl, p-Xylol or polyparaphenylene dimethylene.

9. plasma auxiliary organic thin film deposition apparatus according to claim 2, it is characterized in that, be provided with a mass flow rate controller between this evaporator room and this plasma body generating chamber, in order to control the flow rate that polymerizable material gas that this evaporator room evaporates flows into these gas ions generating chamber.

10. plasma auxiliary organic thin film deposition apparatus according to claim 9, it is characterized in that, be provided with a cracking room between this evaporator room and this mass flow rate controller, this cracking room can receive this evaporator room and evaporate polymerizable material gas, and this polymerizable material gas is carried out early stage cracking.

11. plasma auxiliary organic thin film deposition apparatus according to claim 2 is characterized in that, the working temperature in this evaporator room is about 130～170 degree Celsius.

12. plasma auxiliary organic thin film deposition apparatus according to claim 1 is characterized in that, this guiding device is in order to adjust the air-flow angle of this polymerizable material gas.

13. plasma auxiliary organic thin film deposition apparatus according to claim 3 is characterized in that, this working gas comprises argon, oxygen and nitrogen.

14. plasma auxiliary organic thin film deposition apparatus according to claim 3 is characterized in that, this diffuser is a vitrified pipe.

15. plasma auxiliary organic thin film deposition apparatus according to claim 5 is characterized in that, this swivel arrangement comprises:

One rotating shaft connects this supporting device;

One CD-ROM drive motor is in order to drive this rotating shaft rotation.

16. plasma auxiliary organic thin film deposition apparatus according to claim 7 is characterized in that, cooling hinders but that device is a freezing trap.

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