JP2005305341A - Film formation device - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a high speed controllable film formation device capable of forming a film pattern by an AD method without using a mask. <P>SOLUTION: The film formation device includes a film forming chamber 2; a substrate stage 11 arranged in the film forming chamber and retaining a substrate formed with a structure article; an exhaust pump 15 for exhausting the inside of the film forming chamber; an aerosol producing chamber 1 for producing aerosol by blowing up a powder of material arranged in the vessel by a gas; an aerosol injection nozzle 12 arranged in the film forming chamber and injecting the aerosol produced by the aerosol producing chamber toward the substrate; a side nozzle 13 for injecting air toward the aerosol injected from the aerosol injection nozzle; a compressor 3 for feeding air to the side nozzle; and a control part 5 for controlling a position of the substrate stage and action of the side nozzle in response to the pattern of the formed film. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2006,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention relates to a film forming apparatus that forms a film by spraying and depositing raw material powder onto a substrate.

  In recent years, in the field of micro electrical mechanical systems (MEMS), it has been considered that sensors and actuators using piezoelectric ceramics are further integrated and fabricated by film formation for practical use. Has been. As one of them, an aerosol deposition method, which is known as a film forming technique for ceramics and metals, has attracted attention. The aerosol deposition method (hereinafter also referred to as AD method) is a method in which an aerosol containing raw material powder (film-forming powder) is generated and sprayed from a nozzle toward a substrate. In this method, the powder is deposited by the collision energy of the film to form a film. Here, the aerosol refers to solid or liquid fine particles suspended in a gas. The AD method is also called a jet deposition method or a gas deposition method.

  In order to form a desired film formation pattern on the substrate using the AD method, for example, it is conceivable to use a polymer resist or a hollow mask. That is, a resist or the like is placed on the pattern preparation surface to form a film, and then post-processing including removal of the resist or the like is performed. However, such a method is complicated because the number of processes increases. In addition, when this method is used, it is difficult to change the film thickness according to the position. Furthermore, a mask cannot be formed by photolithography on a surface where the substrate or the lower layer is not flat or a three-dimensional surface.

  Therefore, in order to perform film formation by the AD method without using a mask, it has been proposed to shield film forming powder using a mechanical mechanism. That is, a mechanical chopper is provided in the vicinity of a nozzle for injecting aerosol, and the sprayed film forming powder is shut in a portion where film forming is not required. For example, Patent Document 1 discloses an aerosol in a composite structure forming method in which an aerosol containing fine particles is jetted from a nozzle toward a base material to collide to form a structure made of a constituent material of fine particles on the surface of the base material. And a moving means for moving the blocking means, and when the nozzle or the substrate moves so that the sprayed aerosol collides with a position where the structure on the substrate is not formed, A composite structure forming method in which the blocking means is controlled to be moved to a position where the aerosol is blocked is disclosed. However, in order to mechanically control the film-forming powder sprayed at high speed, it is necessary to use a shutter with a robust mechanism that is difficult to break down in a dust environment and can withstand the collision of film-forming powder. It is difficult to control a shutter having such a mechanism at high speed. Therefore, a fine film pattern cannot be formed.

Alternatively, it is also conceivable to control the supply of the aerosol to the injection nozzle so that the film forming powder is not injected from the nozzle in a portion where film formation is unnecessary. However, as disclosed in Patent Document 2, immediately after the aerosol injection is resumed, the concentration and flow rate of the aerosol are unstable. Deposits and fragile structures are formed. In addition, it takes time before the aerosol airflow conditions are met. Furthermore, even if the airflow conditions are in place, the aerosol flow has a slight spread, and it is still difficult to form a fine film pattern.
Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2003-117450 (second page, FIG. 1) JP 2003-119575 A (page 3)

  In view of the above, an object of the present invention is to provide a film forming apparatus capable of forming a film pattern by an AD method without using a mask and capable of high-speed control.

  In order to solve the above problems, a film forming apparatus according to the present invention includes a film forming chamber, a movable stage that is disposed in the film forming chamber and holds a substrate on which a structure is formed, and an exhaust that exhausts the film forming chamber. And an aerosol generating means for generating an aerosol by blowing up the raw material powder disposed in the container with a gas, and the aerosol generated by the aerosol generating means disposed in the film forming chamber is sprayed toward the substrate At least one injection nozzle for forming an aerosol beam, at least one auxiliary nozzle for injecting air toward or inhaling the aerosol from the at least one injection nozzle, and the at least one A pump for supplying air to one auxiliary nozzle or exhausting the aerosol sucked by at least one auxiliary nozzle; Depending on the pattern of a film to be formed, comprising a position of the movable stage, and a control means for controlling the operation of at least one auxiliary nozzle.

  According to the present invention, the film formation conditions are broken by blowing air to the aerosol ejected from the nozzle or sucking the aerosol, so that the on / off of the film formation can be controlled at high speed. Therefore, it is possible to directly form an arbitrary film pattern without using a mask.

Hereinafter, the best mode for carrying out the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings. The same constituent elements are denoted by the same reference numerals, and the description thereof is omitted.
FIG. 1 is a schematic view showing a film forming apparatus according to the first embodiment of the present invention. This film forming apparatus is a film forming apparatus using an aerosol deposition (AD) method in which a raw material is deposited by spraying an aerosol containing a raw material powder on a substrate.

The film forming apparatus shown in FIG. 1 includes an aerosol generation chamber 1, a film forming chamber 2, a compressor (compression pump) 3, a control valve 4, and a control unit 5.
The aerosol generation chamber 1 is a container in which a fine powder (film forming powder) of a raw material is placed. The aerosol generation chamber 1 is connected with a pneumatic line such as a gas cylinder, from which a carrier gas such as nitrogen (N ₂ ), oxygen (O ₂ ), helium (He), argon (Ar), or dry air. Is introduced. Thereby, in the aerosol production | generation chamber 1, the film-forming powder is blown up and an aerosol is produced | generated. The generated aerosol is introduced into the film forming chamber 2 through the aerosol transport line 1a.

  A substrate stage 11, an injection nozzle 12, and a side nozzle (auxiliary nozzle) 13 held by a nozzle guide 14 are arranged in the film forming chamber 2. Further, the inside of the film forming chamber 2 is depressurized by the exhaust pump 15 so as to be a predetermined pressure. The substrate stage 11 is a movable stage on which the film formation substrate 100 is disposed, and moves two-dimensionally in the XY plane under the control of the control unit 5. Moreover, the injection nozzle 12 forms an aerosol beam by injecting the aerosol introduced via the aerosol transport line 1a toward the substrate 100. The side nozzle 13 is disposed near the opening of the injection nozzle 12 and blows air toward the aerosol injected from the injection nozzle 12. Further, the nozzle guide 14 is provided with a slit 14 a for shaping the aerosol ejected from the ejection nozzle 12.

  The compressor 3 pumps air to the side nozzle 13. A control valve 4 is provided in a supply line of air supplied from the compressor 3 to the side nozzle 13. The control unit 5 controls the position of the substrate stage 11 and switching between opening and closing of the control valve 4 according to the pattern of the film formed on the substrate 100.

Next, the operation of the film forming apparatus shown in FIG. 1 will be described.
First, a substrate 100 made of silicon (Si), glass, ceramics, or the like is placed on the substrate stage 11 in the film forming chamber 2 and maintained at a predetermined temperature, and the inside of the film forming chamber 2 is predetermined using an exhaust pump 15. Exhaust to a vacuum level of. Next, film-forming powder such as ceramics is placed in the aerosol generation chamber 1, and an aerosol is generated by introducing a carrier gas, introduced into the spray nozzle 12, and sprayed toward the substrate 100.

  On the other hand, the controller 5 moves the substrate stage 11 according to the pattern of the film to be formed, and scans the substrate 100 with the aerosol beam ejected from the ejection nozzle 12. Thereby, the film-forming powder contained in the aerosol beam adheres to the substrate 100 and the deposit on the substrate 100, and a desired film pattern is directly formed.

Moreover, the control part 5 opens the control valve 4 so that air may be injected from the side nozzle 13 when the area | region which does not require film-forming on the board | substrate 100 reaches on the injection nozzle 12. FIG. Here, in order to perform film formation by the AD method, there are four types of film formation powder, the pressure at the time of spraying aerosol (film formation powder injection pressure), the substrate conditions such as the hardness of the substrate, and the film formation temperature. The conditions need to be well balanced. If even one of these conditions is lost, the performance of the formed film may change, or the film formation itself may not be performed. Therefore, in areas where film formation is not required, the airflow of the aerosol is disturbed by blowing air onto the aerosol beam. As a result, among the above four conditions, the condition relating to the film forming powder injection pressure is broken, so that the deposition of the film forming powder can be stopped.
The control unit 5 closes the control valve 4 when an area where film formation is unnecessary passes through the injection nozzle 12. As a result, the original film-forming powder injection pressure that matches the film-forming conditions is quickly recovered, and deposition of film-forming powder is started again on the substrate 100.

  Here, the direction of air injected from the side nozzle 13 is preferably a direction having a direction cosine with respect to the traveling direction of the aerosol beam. That is, as shown in FIG. 2A, when the air has a negative velocity component with respect to the traveling direction of the aerosol beam, or as shown in FIG. When air has a positive velocity component with respect to the traveling direction, the velocity component in the substrate direction of the aerosol beam can be changed. Can be destroyed.

  As described above, in this embodiment, by controlling the opening and closing of the control valve 4, film formation can be switched on / off at high speed. Therefore, it is possible to easily form a fine film pattern by the AD method without using a complicated process or a complicated mechanism.

In the present embodiment, one of the film forming conditions in the AD method is controlled by blowing air to the aerosol beam. Conversely, the same effect can be obtained by sucking the aerosol from the side nozzle. Can do. In that case, an exhaust pump may be provided instead of the compressor 4 shown in FIG.
As shown in FIG. 1, the side nozzle 13 does not necessarily have to be disposed in the immediate vicinity of the opening of the injection nozzle 12. For example, the side nozzle 13 may be disposed immediately before the substrate 100 or in the middle of the aerosol transport pipe 1a.

Next, a modification of the film forming apparatus according to this embodiment will be described with reference to FIGS.
In the film forming apparatus according to the present embodiment, instead of the injection nozzle 12 and the side nozzle 13 shown in FIG. 1, a plurality of injection nozzles 21 a, 21 b,. The side nozzles 22a, 22b,... May be used.

  The plurality of injection nozzles 21a, 21b,... Are arranged in a line, and form a plurality of aerosol beams by injecting the aerosol supplied from the aerosol generation chamber 1 shown in FIG. The side nozzles 22a, 22b,... Are arranged in the vicinity of the openings of the injection nozzles 21a, 21b,..., And the aerosol supplied from the corresponding injection nozzles is supplied from the compressor 3 shown in FIG. Spray each beam. In addition, opening / closing of the control valve between the compressor 3 and the side nozzles 22a, 22b,... Is controlled independently.

  Here, the aerosol beam ejected from the ejection nozzle collides with the substrate while slightly spreading. Therefore, as in this modification, by arranging a plurality of injection nozzles at a predetermined interval and injecting aerosol from there, the bottoms of the aerosol beams injected from adjacent injection nozzles overlap, so a wide film is formed. Can be formed. At that time, by controlling the opening and closing of the control valve, it is possible to efficiently form a large-area film having a desired pattern.

By the way, in general, when aerosol is supplied to a plurality of spray nozzles arranged in a line from one transport pipe, the film forming powder spray pressure of the spray nozzle near the center is relatively high, and the peripheral spray nozzles are formed. The film powder injection pressure is considered to be relatively low. When aerosol is uniformly ejected from such a plurality of ejection nozzles, the thickness of the formed film becomes non-uniform. Therefore, in this modified example, the air injection from the side nozzles 22a, 22b,... Can be controlled so that the accumulation time by the injection nozzle near the center is shortened compared to the peripheral injection nozzles. desirable. Thereby, the flat nonuniformity of the formed film can be corrected.
Alternatively, on the contrary, air injection from the side nozzles 22a, 22b,... May be controlled in order to form a film with desired unevenness.

Further, in the film forming apparatus according to the present embodiment, instead of the injection nozzle 12 and the side nozzle 13 shown in FIG. 1, as shown in FIG. 4, an injection nozzle 25 having a slit-like opening and a nozzle guide 27. A plurality of side nozzles 26 held in the cylinder may be used. In this case, a wide film pattern can be efficiently formed using the injection nozzle 25. At that time, by controlling the air injection from the plurality of side nozzles 26 respectively, it is possible to correct the unevenness of the film thickness, or on the contrary, it is possible to produce a film on which desired irregularities are formed.
In the first embodiment of the present invention described above, it is possible to clean the clogging of the injection nozzle by injecting air from the side nozzle.

Next, a film forming apparatus according to a second embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS.
As shown in FIG. 5, the film forming apparatus according to the present embodiment has control valves 31 and 32, a control unit 33, and a control valve 4 instead of the control valve 4, the control unit 5, and the side nozzle 13 shown in FIG. 1. Two side nozzles 34 and 35 held by a nozzle guide 36 are provided. Other configurations are the same as those of the film forming apparatus shown in FIG.

The control valves 31 and 32 are provided in the supply lines of the air pressure-fed from the compressor 3 to the side nozzles 34 and 35, respectively. The controller 33 controls the position of the substrate stage 11 and the opening and closing of the control valves 31 and 32 according to the pattern of the film to be formed.
The side nozzles 34 and 35 are arranged so as to inject air from different directions toward the aerosol beam. FIG. 6 is a view of the injection nozzle 12 and the side nozzles 34 and 35 shown in FIG. 5 as viewed from the substrate 100 side. In the present embodiment, the side nozzle 34 injects air in the X direction, and the side nozzle 35 injects air in the minus Y direction.

  In such a film forming apparatus, by controlling the amount of air ejected from the side nozzles 34 and 35 under the control of the control unit 33, the aerosol is sprayed on the aerosol beam ejected from the ejection nozzle 12, thereby generating an aerosol. The beam can be deflected. Therefore, a desired film pattern can be efficiently formed by performing film formation while adjusting the position of the substrate stage 11, the deflection direction and the deflection amount of the aerosol beam.

Here, the arrangement of the two side nozzles is not necessarily perpendicular to each other as long as their air injection directions are not parallel to each other. Further, by increasing the number of side nozzles, the deflection direction of the aerosol beam can be controlled more finely.
In the present embodiment, an exhaust pump may be provided in place of the compressor 3, and the aerosol beam may be deflected by sucking the aerosol by the side nozzle.

Next, a third embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS.
As shown in FIG. 7, the film forming apparatus according to this embodiment includes a control valve 41, an air flow lens 42, and an air flow lens driving unit 43 in addition to the film forming apparatus shown in FIG. Further, the film forming apparatus has a control unit 44 instead of the control unit 33 shown in FIG. Here, in the present application, an airflow lens refers to a mechanism that changes the diameter of an aerosol beam by using an air current as if it were a lens.

  The control valve 41 is provided in an air supply line that is pumped from the compressor 3 to the airflow lens 42. The airflow lens driving unit 43 moves the airflow lens 42 in the XY directions under the control of the control unit 44. The controller 44 controls the position of the substrate stage 11 and the opening / closing of the control valves 31, 32, and 42 according to the pattern of the film to be formed. Further, when the aerosol beam ejected from the ejection nozzle 12 is deflected by the air ejected from the side nozzles 34 and 35, the control unit 44 moves the airflow lens 42 in accordance with the deflection direction. The lens driving unit 43 is controlled.

  FIG. 8 is an enlarged perspective view showing the airflow lens 42 shown in FIG. The airflow lens 42 has a plurality of air injection ports 42a arranged in a ring shape. Such an airflow lens 42 is disposed so that the aerosol beam ejected from the ejection nozzle 12 passes through the center of the ring.

  Here, as described above, the aerosol beam ejected from the ejection nozzle 12 collides with the substrate while slightly spreading. The degree of spread of the aerosol beam becomes more prominent as the opening of the injection nozzle is smaller. Therefore, even when it is desired to form a thin pattern, there is a limit to controlling the aerosol beam by the aperture diameter. Therefore, in the present embodiment, the aerosol beam is converged using the airflow lens 42. That is, the diameter of the aerosol beam is reduced by allowing the aerosol beam to pass through the center of the ring of the airflow lens 42 and blowing air in the direction perpendicular to the traveling direction of the aerosol beam from a plurality of air injection ports 42a. Can be squeezed. The diameter of the aerosol beam can be changed at high speed by controlling the opening and closing of the control valve 41 to adjust the pressure of the air.

  Thus, in the present embodiment, an aerosol beam having a desired diameter can be formed. In addition, by controlling the position of the substrate 100 and the air injection of the side nozzles 34 and 35, a fine pattern can be formed accurately and efficiently.

  Note that a multistage lens may be configured by arranging a plurality of such airflow lenses. In that case, by converging the aerosol little by little with each airflow lens, the thickness of the aerosol can be narrowed down without greatly disturbing the flow of the aerosol. In addition, the arrangement of the plurality of air injection ports in the airflow lens is not limited to the ring shape, but may be arranged so as to surround the aerosol beam. Alternatively, the same effect can be obtained by arranging a number of nozzle groups so as to surround the aerosol beam instead of arranging the airflow lens.

  In the first to third embodiments of the present invention described above, a gas corresponding to the purpose such as oxygen or nitrogen may be injected from the side nozzle instead of air. By mixing these gases into the aerosol, an oxide film or a nitride film can be formed. At that time, by adjusting the concentration and flow rate of the gas, it is possible to form a film having an arbitrary compound ratio.

  INDUSTRIAL APPLICABILITY The present invention can be used in a film forming apparatus that forms a film by spraying and depositing raw material powder onto a substrate.

It is a schematic diagram which shows the structure of the film-forming apparatus which concerns on the 1st Embodiment of this invention. It is a figure for demonstrating the direction of the air sprayed on aerosol. It is a schematic diagram which shows a part of modification of the film-forming apparatus which concerns on the 1st Embodiment of this invention. It is a schematic diagram which shows a part of another modification of the film-forming apparatus which concerns on the 2nd Embodiment of this invention. It is a schematic diagram which shows the structure of the film-forming apparatus which concerns on the 2nd Embodiment of this invention. It is the figure which looked at the injection nozzle shown in FIG. 5 from the board | substrate side. It is a schematic diagram which shows the structure of the film-forming apparatus which concerns on the 3rd Embodiment of this invention. It is a figure which expands and shows the airflow lens shown in FIG.

Explanation of symbols

1 Aerosol production chamber 2 Deposition chamber 3 Compressor (compression pump)
4, 31, 32, 41 Control valve 5, 33, 44 Control unit 11 Substrate stage 12, 21a, 21b, ..., 25 Injection nozzles 13, 22a, 22b, ..., 26, 34, 35 Side nozzles 14, 23, 27 36 Nozzle guide 14a Slit 15 Exhaust pump 42 Airflow lens 43 Airflow lens drive unit 100 Substrate

Claims (9)

A deposition chamber;
A movable stage disposed in the film forming chamber and holding a substrate on which a structure is formed;
An exhaust means for exhausting the film forming chamber;
Aerosol generating means for generating an aerosol by blowing up the raw material powder disposed in the container with a gas;
At least one spray nozzle that is disposed in the film forming chamber and forms an aerosol beam by spraying the aerosol generated by the aerosol generating means toward the substrate;
At least one auxiliary nozzle that injects air toward the aerosol injected from the at least one injection nozzle or sucks the aerosol;
A pump for supplying air to the at least one auxiliary nozzle or exhausting aerosols sucked by the at least one auxiliary nozzle;
Control means for controlling the position of the movable stage and the operation of the at least one auxiliary nozzle according to the pattern of the film to be formed,
A film forming apparatus comprising:   In the region where film formation is unnecessary in the film pattern formed by the control means, the air from the at least one auxiliary nozzle is disturbed so that the airflow of the aerosol injected from the at least one injection nozzle is disturbed. The film-forming apparatus of Claim 1 which injects or inhales aerosol. The at least one injection nozzle includes a plurality of arranged injection nozzles;
The at least one auxiliary nozzle includes a plurality of auxiliary nozzles that respectively inject air toward the aerosol injected from the plurality of injection nozzles or suck each of the aerosols;
The film forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the control unit controls the operation of each of the plurality of auxiliary nozzles according to a pattern of a film to be formed. The at least one injection nozzle includes a nozzle having a slit-like opening;
The at least one auxiliary nozzle includes a plurality of auxiliary nozzles arranged in a line along a long side of the nozzle having the slit-shaped opening;
The control means controls the operation of each of the plurality of auxiliary nozzles according to the pattern of the film to be formed;
The film forming apparatus according to claim 1 or 2.   5. The film forming apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the control unit controls the operation of each of the plurality of auxiliary nozzles so as to correct flatness unevenness of a film to be formed.   5. The film forming apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the control unit controls the operation of each of the plurality of auxiliary nozzles such that a film having predetermined unevenness is formed. The at least one auxiliary nozzle is arranged to inject air from different directions toward the aerosol injected from the at least one injection nozzle, or to suck aerosol from different directions Including nozzles,
The control means controls the operations of the at least two auxiliary nozzles so as to deflect the aerosol beam according to the pattern of the film to be formed;
The film forming apparatus according to claim 1. An air injection means arranged so as to surround the aerosol injected from the at least one injection nozzle, and having a plurality of injection ports for injecting air toward the aerosol;
The control means controls the operation of the air injection means so as to change the diameter of the aerosol beam by blowing air injected from the plurality of injection ports.
The film-forming apparatus of any one of Claims 1-7. A plurality of nozzle groups arranged to surround the aerosol ejected from the at least one ejection nozzle and ejecting air toward the aerosol;
The control means controls the operation of the plurality of nozzle groups so as to change the diameter of the aerosol beam by being blown with air ejected from the plurality of nozzle groups.
The film-forming apparatus of any one of Claims 1-7.

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