JPS6047256A - Substrate carrying mechanism in vacuum thin film processing device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To hold rotatably a substrate from a substrate tray while keeping perpendicularity by providing the substrate tray accommodating plural plate shaped substrates to be subject to thin film processing under vacuum, a substrate turning arm, a substrate carrying arm and a substrate tray carrying mechanism. CONSTITUTION:A vacuum case 10 is evacuated by a pump via an exhaust 12. The substrate tray 30 accommodating plural disk substrates 40 to form thin film on it is arranged in the vacuum case 10. After the disk substrate 40 in the substrate tray is inserted to the substrate carrying arm, the substrate is turned by nearly 90 deg. around its turning shaft (e), the substrate goes to the direction of an arrow 41 along an orbit of circular arc alpha and the center axis is carried to a position shown in one dotted line (b), the center of the substrate is moved to the base turning arm and held. Then the base turning arm is turned by nearly 180 deg. around the axis (c), the center of the base 40 goes to the direction of an arrow 42 on an orbit of a circular arc beta accordingly, carried to a sputter zone 11, and the center axis is turned while being held to a position shown in two dashed lines (d), and sputter atoms emitted from a target 51 are deposited on the surface to form the thin film.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a substrate conveyance mechanism in an apparatus for carrying out the invention, and particularly to a substrate conveyance mechanism suitable for processing a thin film while rotating the substrate in a vertical state.

One example of a specific field of application of the present invention is the thin film manufacturing process in the manufacturing process of optical recording discs. There, for example, the diameter is 75 mm to 350 mm, and the thickness is about 1 mm. It is necessary to fabricate an amorphous film with a uniform thickness of about 0 to 1 μm on a glass or Norasti disk. Another example of application is the production of a thin film of thermomagnetic recording material on a plastic disk of approximately the same dimensions as the above, or the production of video disks, digital audio, etc.
There is the production of thin films of light-reflecting materials for discs.

These circular substrates generally have a hole in the center and are rotated at high speed when used as a product. The thin film formed on the substrate needs to have uniform physical characteristics and thickness over the entire area of the substrate, and in particular must be extremely uniform on the concentric circumference with respect to rotation around the central axis. It is hoped that Therefore, it is preferable to rotate the substrate during the production of the sputtered film. In addition, since the area occupied by one recording unit on the substrate is extremely small, during the preparation of the S. manta film, it is undesirable that minute dust gets mixed in on the substrate or even that pinholes, etc., where the film does not adhere, occur. Therefore, in order to prevent dust from accumulating on the surface of the substrate even if dust is generated, it is preferable to transport the substrate and form a thin film thereon with the substrate in a substantially vertical position.

Furthermore, in the step of inserting or taking out the disk-shaped substrate into the full vacuum chamber.

Even if a load lock chamber is used, it is preferable to insert and remove the substrates one by one by placing a large number of substrates in the substrate tray and inserting and removing them, thereby minimizing the number of times the vacuum is broken.

Although each of the above-mentioned 69 items are individually known in the past, there is actually no known conventional device that simultaneously realizes them. This is a previously known method in which the transport mechanism takes the substrate out of a substrate tray that holds the substrate vertically in a vacuum and holds it rotatably around a horizontal axis while maintaining the vertical position. This is because a collection of information becomes extremely complex.

Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a conveying mechanism that rotatably holds the substrate from the substrate tray vertically in a vacuum with a simple structure.

According to the present invention, there is provided a substrate tray that vertically accommodates a plurality of plate-shaped substrates to be subjected to thin film treatment in a vacuum, and a substrate tray to be subjected to thin film treatment while sandwiching and holding the substrates at their centers. a substrate rotating arm for transporting the substrate to a location and subjecting it to a thin film treatment there; and a substrate rotating arm that holds the substrate housed in the substrate tray between its outer peripheries and transporting the substrate to the substrate rotating arm and subjecting the correspondence to the thin film treatment. a substrate transfer arm that transfers the substrate from the substrate rotation arm to the substrate tray; and a substrate transfer arm that transfers the plurality of substrates accommodated in the substrate tray one by one to the substrate transfer arm for thin film processing. A substrate tray conveying mechanism and a metal plate were provided to move the substrate tray. A substrate transport mechanism in a vacuum thin film processing apparatus is obtained.

Next, a detailed explanation will be given with reference to the drawings.

FIGS. 1 and 2 are diagrams respectively showing the configuration of a sputtering apparatus according to a first embodiment of the present invention and its cross section taken along line A-A'. In the following description using both figures, the vacuum container 10 is evacuated through the exhaust port 12fI by a pump (not shown). A substrate tray 30 containing a plurality of circular substrates 40 on which a thin film is to be formed is placed in a vacuum container, and is moved inside by a substrate tray transport mechanism (not shown) along a dashed line a to a predetermined interval. Each can be fixed. Circular substrate 40 in the substrate tray
is inserted into a substrate transfer arm (not shown), and then rotated about 90° about its rotation axis e.

Accordingly, the center of the base moves along the trajectory of the arc α as shown by the arrow 41.
The central axis thereof is transferred to the position shown by the dashed line, and here it is transferred and held by a base rotating arm (not shown). Next, rotate the base rotation arm about 180 degrees around its axis C.

Accordingly, the center of the base body 40 travels along a trajectory defined by an arc β in the direction of an arrow 42 and is transferred to the suction zone 11.
While rotating with its central axis held at the position shown by the two-dot chain line d, the star particles starting from the target 51 are deposited on its surface to form a thin film.

The substrate, on which a thin film has been formed by receiving the suction and ivy atoms for a predetermined period of time, is rotated again by rotating the substrate rotation arm about its axis C by about 18 mm.
By rotating 0°, the central axis moves along the arc β as shown by the arrow 4.
It moves in the direction 2' and is transferred to the position indicated by the dashed-dotted line.

Furthermore, it is detached from the substrate rotation arm, inserted into the waiting substrate transfer arm, and detached from the substrate rotation arm.

After that, the base rotation arm is rotated about 9 degrees around its rotation center e.
It rotates by 0°, and accordingly, the center of the base moves along the arc α in the direction of the arrow 4f and comes to rest at a point a. The substrate is then removed from the substrate transfer arm and stored in the initial position within the substrate tray 30. Next, the substrate tray is translated by a substrate tray transport mechanism (not shown) by a predetermined distance in a direction perpendicular to the plane of this figure, and a new substrate 40 is placed on standby for insertion into the substrate transport arm. By repeating the above process, sputtered films are produced on a plurality of substrates accommodated in the p-substrate tray.

Openings (111 and 11 are the surrounding areas) are provided in the two walls sandwiching the sputter zone 11 of the vacuum container, and the sputter electrode 5 is inserted through the insulators 53 and 53'.
0, 50' are incorporated. Inside the vacuum vessel of the sputtering electrode are targlets 51 and 51', which are attached to the thin film on both sides of the substrate 40 in the sputtering zone, and these three are tightly attached to each other by bolts (not shown) via O-rings 54 and 55. This has been achieved by making it possible. One of the outputs of the power supply 100°100' is connected to the power supply lines xox and t.
They are connected to the suction electrodes 50 and 50' through the of.

The other side of the output is connected to the power return wires 102 and 102' at a shear distance, while the wall of the vacuum vessel is connected to the ground wire 103.
It is set to earth potential. Note that when power is supplied to the four-pointed electrode to cause discharge and generate sputtering at the target 51.5f, a large amount of thermal energy is generally incident on the sputtering electrode, so the sputtering electrode should be cooled with running water or the like. It is well known in the small field that this is necessary, so illustration is omitted. When performing thin film processing using the above-mentioned apparatus, first, the tray 30 containing the substrate 40 is inserted into the vacuum container by opening the door 21, and then the door 21 is rotated around the door shaft 26 and closed. The vacuum container is kept airtight via the ring 25, and then the inside of the vacuum container is evacuated.

Furthermore, if necessary, a heating lamp 1 is installed inside the vacuum container.
3, 13' and heat reflecting plates 14, 14'. Then, a gas of a predetermined composition is introduced into the vacuum container from a gas supply system (not shown) through the gas introduction pipe 13, and while being discharged from the exhaust port 12, the inside of the vacuum container is maintained while maintaining a dynamic equilibrium state. Maintain a predetermined pressure suitable for sputtering. The pressure is 10-3 to 10-
It is often in the 2 Torr range. Then, from the sputtering power source 100°100', the sputtering electrodes 50, 5
While performing sputtering by supplying power to Ru. After the thin film is formed on the substrate, power supply to the sputtering electrode and gas introduction are stopped, the vacuum is broken, and the inside of the vacuum container is brought to atmospheric pressure, after which the substrate 40 can be taken out.

FIG. 3 shows the base tray 30 in FIG. The relative positional relationship of the substrate 40 and the substrate tray transport mechanism 60 not shown in FIG. 1 is shown. The base tray 30 has a pair of end plates 301
and 302 with three base support rods 303 in between and six nuts 304 and 304'.

304//, 305, 305', and 305'' are fixedly assembled and fixed on a conveyance table 601 that constitutes a part of the substrate tray conveyance mechanism 60.

FIG. 4 is an overhead view of the base support rod 303 in FIG.
and thin circumferential portions 3033 are provided at equal intervals, and an inclined surface 303 having a constant angle is provided between the thick circumferential portion and the thin circumferential portion.
4 is provided. This inclined surface and the thin circumferential part 3033
If the shape and dimensions of the groove-like region formed by the grooves are appropriately selected in relation to the thickness of the substrate, the substrate tray 3 as shown in FIG.
In the structure of No. 0, the circular substrate placed vertically stands on its own within the substrate tray without falling down due to its own gravity.

In this embodiment, each of the base support rods 303 has 8
The substrate tray 30, which has eight pairs of grooved areas, can therefore accommodate up to eight substrates at a time. A rack 602 is attached to the side surface of the transport platform 601.

By rotating the pinion 603 in the direction of the arrow 6031 or 6032, the conveyor table 601 is moved to the direction of the arrow 3011, respectively.
Alternatively, the substrate tray 30 can be transported in the direction 3012 while maintaining the center axis of each substrate above the dashed line a. On the other hand, a photoelectric switch 70 is provided outside the vacuum container, and light can be introduced along the arrow 71 through a window provided on the wall of the vacuum container. If the substrate in the substrate tray is properly positioned, the light will be reflected from its end face and returned to the photoelectric switch 70 according to arrow 72, thereby setting the correct position of the substrate.

FIG. 5 shows the base 40 as viewed from a direction perpendicular to the paper plane of FIG.
FIG. 6 is a relative positional relationship diagram of the substrate tray 30 and the substrate tray transport mechanism 60. The substrate transport table 601 includes a pair of support stands 60
A rotor 606 having at least two groove-shaped guides and at least two rotors 607 without a guide are attached to each support via bearings.

Furthermore, each rotor has two rails (L/608 and 608) installed horizontally and parallelly on the bottom surface 103 of the vacuum vessel.
’ is placed on top. In this way, the support stand 605
can move along the rail while supporting at least four rotors in contact with the rail.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing the structure of a substrate transfer arm (not shown in FIGS. 1 and 2) to be used in FIGS. 1 and 2. FIG. In FIG.

The substrate transfer arm drive box 70 has six square surfaces 71.
, 72, 73, 74, 75, 76, X'! It accommodates two arms 77, 78 into which a circular base body is inserted. In the illustrated state, the substrate 40 indicated by the broken line is accommodated in the substrate tray 30 as shown in FIG. Two pulleys 771, 772 and 7 are installed at the tips of the two A1.
81 and 782 are respectively provided, and the base body 40 can be sandwiched and fixed by the groove portions of the two series, a total of four.

In addition, the arm is mounted on a sliding bearing 7 by a mechanism described later.
By moving along lines 73 and 774, the substrate 40 can be detached from the silicone sandwiching it. Furthermore, by rotating the drive box 70 around the rotation axis e with the base body 40 inserted, the base body 40 is transferred from point a to point b'l so that its center is along the arc α, and can be moved anywhere in between. You can stop at any location.

FIG. 7 is a top view of the substrate transfer arm of FIG. 6, with most of the top plate 71 of the substrate transfer arm drive box 70 cut away to facilitate understanding of its operation. In the figure, a flat bearing 773 provided on two opposing surfaces 73 and 74 of the substrate transfer arm box,
The arm 77 supported by 774 and the bearing 783
．． An arm 78 supported by an arm 784 inserts and inserts a circular base body into a pulley 771 and an IJ-781 provided at the ends of each arm 78 by pushing it from its outer periphery.

Horizontal bearings 751 and 752 provided on the other two surfaces 75 and 76 of the drive box support an arm drive shaft 79 having its axis e. The two arms 77 and 78 arranged parallel to the arm drive shaft 79 are both provided with racks, and their movements are coupled by two spur gears 791 and 792. The arm drive shaft 79 can be moved from the outside of the vacuum container along the axis e in the direction of an arrow 7911 or the opposite direction by a drive mechanism (not shown). The rotation shafts of the spur gears 791 and 792 are driven by bearings provided on the top surface 71 and bottom surface 72 of the sock. Arm drive shaft 79 is indicated by arrow 791
1, the spur gear 792 moves in the direction of arrow 79.
Rotate in direction 12.

Therefore, arm 77 moves in the direction of arrow 7913 and arm 78 simultaneously moves in the direction of arrow 7914, so that the base body is sandwiched and fixed between the grooves of the four grooves. Conversely, when arm drive shaft 79'ff is moved in the opposite direction to arrow 7911, arm 77 moves in the opposite direction of arrow 7913, and at the same time arm 78 moves in the opposite direction of arrow 7914. , the four pulleys are separated from the substrate 40 and the drive box 70 is rotated from the outside of the vacuum vessel by a drive mechanism that does not have a substrate transfer arm.
An umbrella that rotates as a whole and does not require moving the axis e. When rotating the i gear 82 in the direction of arrow 811 in FIG. 7, the drive box 70 in FIG.
Therefore, if the arms 77 and 78 rotate the base body 40 in the direction of the arrow 812, the center of the base body will be along the arc α in FIG. is transported in the direction of By making the arm drive shaft load 79 and the axis of the L gear 80 coincide with each other in this way.

In the substrate transfer arm according to the present invention, the circular arc α of the substrate 40
The conveyance along the base body 40 and the insertion and removal of the base body 40 by the arm can be performed completely independently.

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing the configuration of the base rotating arm 90, which was explained in the explanation of FIGS. 1 and 2 but not shown. In the figure, the center point of the substrate when the substrate 40 is transferred between the substrate transfer arm and the substrate rotation arm, the rotation center C of the substrate rotation arm, the rotation center d of the substrate in the sputter zone, and the rotation center d of the substrate rotation arm. The locus β of the center of the transferred substrate all coincides with the symbols in FIG. The rotation of the base body 40 is controlled by the four gears 9 shown.
61.962.963.965 and gear 9 in this figure
This is achieved through the rotation of a total of five gears, which are not shown and are shaded by 63, with their teeth meshing with each other.

The driving torque for the rotation of the base body is transmitted from the i-gear 9611, and the base body can be rotated around its central axis C by giving a detailed rotation.

Due to the rotation of the rotating arm 91, the central axis of the final stage gear for rotating the base body moves on the circular arc β, and at the same time, the central axis of the gear 963 also moves on the circular arc γ. The twisted substrate rotating arm 90 is supported by a support 93 and fixed to the bottom of the vacuum vessel. FIG. 9 is a top view of the configuration of the substrate rotating arm shown in FIG. 8. Two arms 9 installed parallel in the figure
1 and 92 are fixed by one rotation shaft 95 having a center C, and one rotation shaft 95 is supported by two supports 93 and 94 via rotation bearings. Therefore, the rotation axis 9
By applying a driving torque from an i-gear 9501 installed at the tip of the arm, the two arms can rotate around the central axis C while maintaining a parallel state. On the other hand, a rotating shaft 9620, which has the same central axis as the rotating shaft 95 and is hollow inside, is supported by the support body 93 and the arm 91 via a rotating bearing, and is connected to a gear 962 provided on the outer periphery of the rotating shaft. It can rotate freely. Two rotation shafts 9640 and 9650 are attached to the arm 91 via rotation bearings.9. The former is connected to gears 963 and 964 to rotate around the center f, and the latter is connected to gear 965 to rotate around the center. Arm 9
A rotary shaft 9650 provided on the end side of 1 is hollow, and a rotary valve shaft 9651 is provided inside the shaft, and a presser 9652 and a puller 9653 are fixed to both ends of the rotary shaft 9650. On the other hand, one end of the arm 92 is also provided with a hollow rotating shaft 9650' and a rotating valve shaft 965 inside thereof via a rotating bearing, and a holding tool 9652' and a pulling tool 9653' are attached. Two rotary valve shafts 9651, 96sr
The rotational shafts 9650 and 9650' on the outside thereof can be freely changed in their relative positions in the axial direction, but
They cannot rotate independently; they rotate as a pair. Usually presser 9652.9652' and shaft 9650.9650
Coil springs 9654 and 9654 inserted between '
I) Forces are acting on the two rotary valve shafts 9651 and 9651' so that they are opposed to each other and pushed against each other.

Therefore, in the illustrated state, the base body 40 is held by the rotating arm by being pressed by the pressers 9652 and 9652' from both sides along its inner circumference. On the other hand, if the 92 pullers 9653 and 9653' are simultaneously pulled four times against the force of the spring by a drive mechanism (not shown), the base body can be detached from the rotating arm at this location. .

Rotating the base body in FIG. 9 is accomplished as follows. When torque is applied to the gear 9611 (not shown in the drive mechanism), the shaft 96 rotates about the central axis g, and the gears 961, 962, 963
．． 964. and 9650, a total of 5 gears are interlocked. Therefore, as described above, if no tensile force is applied to the pullers 9653 and 9653', the pushers 9652 and 9652'
The base body 40 is rotated while being held between them. Moreover, the rotation of the base body can be performed completely independently of the rotation of the arms 91 and 920. That is, when a torque is applied to the l gear 9501 by a drive mechanism (not shown), the rotating shaft 95 rotates around the center C in a direction p, and two gears 96 out of five gears rotate accordingly.
The rotation center axes g and C of 1 and 962 are fixed i! , the rotation center axes of the three gears 963, 964, and 965 move smoothly along central arcs γ and β of p around C in FIG. 8. By applying a driving torque, the base body is rotated. I can do it.

FIG. 10 is a diagram showing the configuration of the base rotating arm of FIG. 9 when viewed from the left side in the figure. In Figure 9, the axis of rotation,
It can be seen that f and g all overlap the rotation axis C in this figure.

The main elements constituting the sputtering apparatus in the specific embodiments of the present invention shown in FIGS. 1 to 10 are a 9-circular base and a base tray capable of accommodating a plurality of bases vertically and independently. , a substrate tray transport mechanism for moving the substrate tray, a substrate rotation arm that can transfer and rotate independently and simultaneously while holding the substrate in its center, and inserting the substrate housed in the substrate tray. The substrate transfer arm is capable of transferring the substrate to the substrate rotation arm, and from the substrate rotation arm to the substrate tray again. The combination of these constituent factors of the present invention can be modified in several ways other than what has been described so far.

Below, specific modifications to the above-mentioned basic configuration for further increasing the productivity of the sputtering apparatus will be shown.

FIG. 11 is a diagram showing another embodiment of the base rotating arm. As compared with FIG. 9, the arms 91 and 92 are completely symmetrical, and the base bodies can be simultaneously inserted and rotated at symmetrical positions with respect to the rotation center axis C of the arms. On the other hand, 5 gears 961.962.963
．． 964. ．． It can be rotated by interlocking rotation of 965. If a driving torque is applied to the five gears 971 and 9501, the arms 91 and 92 will rotate around the center axis C of the knitting machine that holds the two bases 4.01 and 4.02 between them. It can be rotated to shi.

As already mentioned, in this embodiment as well, the rotation of the central axis C of the arm and the rotation of the central axis of the base 401 can be performed completely independently and simultaneously. Therefore, in this embodiment, one of the substrates is detached from the substrate transfer arm shown in FIG. 6 and inserted into the rotating arm at a position such that its center is at point b, or conversely, the substrate is detached from the rotating arm and inserted into the rotating arm. While performing the work of inserting the substrate into the substrate transfer arm, a sputtered film can be formed on the other substrate while simultaneously rotating the other substrate at a position such that its center is d.

As mentioned in the explanation of Fig. 11, simultaneous insertion and removal of the substrate and rotation of the substrate at two different locations on the substrate rotation arm is extremely effective in saving time and increasing productivity. . However, the present invention does not limit the number of substrates that can be inserted at one time to one or two. Furthermore, it is clear from the above description that it is possible to increase the number of substrates that can be inserted simultaneously to three, four, or more.

In the embodiment of the invention shown in FIG. 1, it is necessary to repeat the vacuum breaking and evacuation each time the substrate tray 30 is inserted or removed. To further improve productivity, it is possible to adopt a vacuum chamber structure that does not expose the ivy chamber to the atmosphere each time the substrate is taken in and out, but specific methods for this are well known in the art. These known techniques do not limit the application of the present invention.

Furthermore, in the above specific examples, the process of forming a thin film on the surface of a circular substrate by sputtering in the processing chamber has been explained. However, the present invention is not limited to the production of thin films by sputtering.

For example, it can be applied to thin film production by plasma CVD.

In that case, a high frequency voltage is applied between the main ivy electrode shown in Figure 1 as a discharge electrode and the vacuum vessel at the arm potential, and an appropriate gas to be the base material of the membrane is introduced into the vacuum vessel. All you have to do is flow into. Furthermore, in the present invention, if an ion source is provided at the location of the sputtering electrode shown in FIG. 1, it is possible to perform etching by applying ion bombardment to the disc-shaped substrate.

As can be seen from the above description, there are two aspects according to the present invention.

A transport mechanism for taking out a substrate held vertically from a substrate tray in a vacuum and rotatably holding it vertically can be obtained with a simple configuration.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

1 is a diagram showing the configuration of a sputtering apparatus equipped with a substrate conveyance mechanism according to a first embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a sectional view taken along arrow A-A of the sputtering apparatus in FIG. 1, and FIG. 4 is a diagram showing the substrate tray and substrate transport mechanism in FIG.
The figures are an overhead view of the substrate support rod in FIG. 3, FIG. 5 is a diagram showing the relative positional relationship between the substrate tray and the substrate transport mechanism, and FIG.
The figure shows the configuration of the substrate transfer arm to be used in Fig. 1, Fig. 7 is a top view of the dark substrate transfer arm in Fig. 6, and Fig. 8 is a top view of the dark substrate transfer arm used in Fig. 1. A diagram showing the configuration of the base rotating arm. 9 is a top view of the base rotating arm in FIG. 8, FIG. 10 is a side view of the base rotating arm in FIG. 9, and FIG. 11 is another embodiment of the base rotating arm to be used in FIG. 1. FIG. Explanation of symbols: 10 is the vacuum processing chamber, 30 is the substrate tray, 4
0 is a circular substrate, and 50 is a sputter electrode. Arms 100 each supply a sputtering power source.

Claims (1)

[Claims] ], a substrate tray that vertically accommodates a plurality of plate-shaped substrates to be subjected to thin film treatment in a vacuum, and a substrate tray that sandwiches and holds the substrates at their centers and transports the substrates to a location where thin film treatment is to be performed; A substrate rotating arm is provided with a thin film treatment at the substrate rotating arm, and the entire substrate housed in the substrate tray is sandwiched and held at its outer periphery and transferred to the substrate rotating arm, and the substrate subjected to the thin film treatment is transferred from the substrate rotating arm to the correspondence. a substrate transfer arm that transfers the substrate to the substrate tray; and a substrate tray that transfers the substrate tray in conjunction with transferring a plurality of substrates housed in the substrate tray one by one to the substrate transfer arm for thin film processing. It is equipped with a transport mechanism. Substrate transport mechanism in vacuum thin film processing equipment.