JPH06179967A - Pvd device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To reduce the consumption of electric power by varying the out-put power of the electric source of an evaporating source linked to the opening/ closing of a shutter. CONSTITUTION:There is obtained a PVD device such as a sputtering device, which is provided with sputtering sources 1a, 1b, the electric sources 2a, 2b individually provided on each of sputtering sources and the shutters 3a, 3b and makes the out-put power of the electric source at the time of closing the shutter a minimized value capable of keeping the sputtering.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a PVD apparatus such as a sputtering apparatus for forming thin films of a plurality of substances on a substrate or the like.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art FIG. 3 shows an outline of a sputtering apparatus for sputtering a plurality of substances on a substrate or the like. In this figure, parts such as an exhaust device and a gas introduction system for sputtering which are not directly related to the present invention are not shown. This apparatus comprises two sputter sources 1a and 1b, and the respective sputter sources 1a and 1b.
Independently of sputtering power sources 2a and 2b and shutters 3a and 3b
Have respectively. The substrate 4 on which the thin film is formed is attached to the substrate holder 5 facing the sputter sources 1a and 1b, and constantly rotates on the sputter sources 1a and 1b. When one material is formed by sputtering, the shutter on that side is opened and the other shutter is closed. Monitor 6 for checking whether substrate 4 has passed over sputter source 1a or 1b with the shutter open.
The number of passages is detected by a counter (not shown), and the shutter is opened and closed while being compared with a preset number. A signal obtained by inverting the sign of the opening / closing signal sent to one shutter is sent to the other shutter so that the two shutters open and close alternately. In this way, two substances are alternately deposited. When the film formation of a predetermined number of layers is completed, the rotation of the substrate 4 and the sputtering power supplies 2a and 2b are stopped.

[0003]

In this conventional example, the shutters 3a, 3 are turned on after the sputtering power supplies 2a, 2b are turned on.
Irrespective of the opening and closing of b, the sputtering is continued at the same output power Va and Vb until the thin film formation is completed. Therefore, there are problems that the sputtering source is consumed quickly and the power consumption of the sputtering apparatus is large. In order to avoid such a problem, it is conceivable to stop the power supply of the other sputtering source while the material of one sputtering source is being sputtered. However, in this case, the surface of the material of the sputter source that is not sputtered is deteriorated by oxidation or the like, and in order to remove the deteriorated layer, presputtering for a certain period of time is necessary before each sputter. Become. For this reason, there is a problem in that it takes a long time to form a film and the workability is deteriorated. The pre-sputtering means that the minimum power required to remove the deteriorated layer on the surface of the sputtering source is supplied to the sputtering power sources 2a and 2b.

An object of the present invention is to provide a PVD device capable of suppressing consumption of a vapor deposition source and reducing power consumption by making output power of a power source variable in accordance with opening / closing of a shutter. Another object of the present invention is to provide a PVD apparatus which does not require pre-sputtering or the like so that the output power is maintained at a minimum value that does not deteriorate the surface of the vapor deposition source when the shutter is closed. To do.

[0005]

The present invention will be described with reference to the sputtering apparatus of FIG. 3 showing an embodiment of the present invention. The invention according to claim 1 has a plurality of sputtering sources 1a and 1b.
And a PVD device such as a sputter device provided with sputter power sources 2a and 2b and shutters 3a and 3b that are independently provided in the sputter source, and output power of the power sources 2a and 2b in conjunction with opening and closing of the shutter. The above-mentioned object is achieved by providing a power source power varying means for varying. According to the invention described in claim 2, in the PVD apparatus such as the sputtering apparatus according to claim 1, the output power of the power source when the shutters 3a and 3b are closed is set to a minimum value that does not deteriorate the surface of the vapor deposition source. The power supply power varying means is provided for achieving the above object.

[0006]

According to the first aspect of the present invention, the power source power varying means detects the opening / closing of the shutter and varies the output power of the power source of the vapor deposition source according to the opening / closing of the shutter. Claim 2
In the invention described in (1), the power source power varying means detects opening and closing of the shutter and sets the output power of the power source of the vapor deposition source to a minimum value at which the surface of the vapor deposition source is not deteriorated when the shutter is closed.
Incidentally, in the section of means and action for solving the above problems for explaining the configuration of the present invention, the drawings of the embodiments are used to make the present invention easy to understand, but the present invention is limited to the embodiments. Not something.

[0007]

1 and 2 show an embodiment in which the present invention is applied to a sputtering apparatus. The structure of the main body of the sputtering apparatus according to this embodiment is the same as that shown in FIG. 3 and its explanation is omitted.
In FIG. 1, reference numeral 7a denotes an initial state setting unit, a substrate rotation control unit 7b, which will be described later, the substrate rotation speed, a sputtering power supply unit 7d, a power value during pre-sputtering, and a frequency comparison unit 7g, which indicates the number of times the substrate passes through the shutter. The number of repeated film formations is set in the film formation number comparison unit 7h, and which shutter is opened first is set in the shutter control unit 7c and the shutter passage number monitor unit 7e. Reference numeral 7b is a substrate rotation controller, which has a motor for rotating the substrate holder 5 and a drive circuit for the motor. A shutter control unit 7c controls opening and closing of the shutters 3a and 3b. Reference numeral 7d denotes a sputter power supply unit, which includes a sputter power supply 2a for the sputter 1a and a sputter power supply 2b for the sputter 1b. Reference numeral 7e is a shutter passage number monitor unit that detects whether or not the substrate 4 has passed above the opened shutter 3a or 3b. Reference numeral 7f denotes a shutter passage number counting unit that counts the number of passages Na or Nb of the substrate 4 detected by the shutter passage number monitoring unit 7e. Reference numeral 7g is a number comparing unit, which compares the count value of the shutter passing number counting unit 7f with the initial value set through the initial state setting unit 7a. Reference numeral 7h is a film formation number counting unit for counting the number of film formations. That is, the number of times the comparison values of the number-of-times comparison unit 7g match is counted. Reference numeral 7i denotes a film formation number comparison unit, which compares the count value of the film formation number counting unit 7h with the initial value set through the initial state setting unit 7a.

The operation of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. First, each part is initialized through the initial state setting part 7a. Next, after resetting the shutter passage number counting unit 7f and the film formation number counting unit 7h, the motor of the substrate rotation control unit 7b is driven to start the rotation of the substrate. The shutter passage number monitor unit 7e detects the shutter passage, and the shutter passage number counting unit 7f counts the passage number. Count comparison unit 7g
Check whether or not the number matches the preset number of times the shutter has passed. If they do not match, counting of the number of times the shutter has passed is continued. If they match, the count value of the film formation number counting unit 7h is incremented by 1,
The film formation number comparison unit 7i checks whether or not the film formation number matches a preset film formation number. If they do not match, the opening and closing of the shutters 3a and 3b of the shutter control unit 7c are reversed, and the shutter monitored by the shutter passing count monitor unit 7e is reversed, and the sputtering power supply unit 7
The sputtering power of d is switched. Film formation number comparison unit 7i
If the comparison values in 1 are matched, the motor of the substrate rotation control unit 7b is stopped to stop the rotation of the substrate and the power output of the sputtering power supply unit 7d is stopped.

FIG. 2 shows a processing flow for explaining the operation of the embodiment shown in FIG. 1 in more detail. Various initial settings are made at P1. At P2, the motor of the substrate rotation controller 7b is activated to start the rotation of the substrate. At P3, the film formation count value I is set to 0, and the sputtering powers of the power supplies 2a and 2b of the sputtering power supply unit 7d are set to VaL and VbL for performing pre-sputtering, respectively.
Set to. At P4, both shutters 3a and 3b are closed to perform pre-sputtering. At P5, it is determined which of the sputtering sources 1a and 1b is to be sputtered. Sputter source 1a
In the case of sputtering from, the power of the sputtering source 1a is set to VaH (> VaL) at P6, and the count value Na indicating the number of times the shutter 3a has passed is set to zero. At P7, the shutter 3a is opened and the shutter 3b is kept closed. When it is detected in P8 that the substrate 4 has passed over the shutter 3a by the signal from the monitor 6, 1 is added to the count value Na indicating the number of times the substrate has passed through the shutter 3a in P9. Count value Na at P10
Check whether or not matches the initial set value NA. P until they match
Repeat P8 and P9 to continue counting. If they match, P1
The shutter 3a is closed at 1 to set the sputtering power to VaL, then 1 is added to the film formation count value I at P12, and it is checked at P13 whether the film formation count value I matches the initial set value M. At P14, the power of the sputter source 1b is set to VbH, and the variable Nb for counting the number of times the shutter 3b has passed is set to 0. P15
In, the shutter 3b is opened, and thereafter, in P16 to P21, the same operation as in P8 to P13 is performed. On the other hand, if the film formation count value I matches the initial set value M in P13, the substrate 4 is processed in P22.
The film formation is completed by stopping the rotation of and the output of the sputtering power source.

For example, when an alternating film of tungsten and carbon is formed as a multi-layer film for X-rays by a high frequency sputtering apparatus, until now, a tungsten target of 0.
The film was formed at a power of 4 Kw and 1 Kw for the carbon target. Further, while the film formation of one of the substances was performed, the other shutter was closed, but the electric power was supplied as it was. In this state, it took about 2 hours to form a multilayer film having a tungsten layer thickness of 2 nm, a carbon layer thickness of 4 nm, and 50 layers. Of these, the time for opening the shutter and actually forming the film is 40 minutes for tungsten and 80 minutes for carbon.
It was a minute. In this embodiment, the same electric power was used during film formation, but the electric power when the shutter was closed was set to 0.1 Kw for tungsten and 0.2 Kw for carbon. As a result, the total power is 50% for tungsten and 73 for carbon.
% Has been reduced. Along with this, the consumption of the target was reduced to almost the same level, and the interval between target replacements could be extended. On the other hand, the time required for film formation was the same as before, and the film thickness and X-ray reflectance of the formed multilayer film were the same as those obtained by the conventional method. A similar effect was observed in the formation of a multilayer film of molybdenum and silicon.

Further, most of the sputter devices are arranged in a circuit system so that electric power is most effectively applied to the plasma when the shutter is open, but the shutter is closed without changing the sputter electric power as in the conventional case. This method has a drawback that this matching is broken and the load of the circuit system becomes large due to the reflected power. However, in this embodiment, since the power when the shutter is closed is reduced, the reflected power can be reduced and the reliability of the circuit system is improved.

As an embodiment of the present invention, the film formation of the alternating layers in the apparatus having two sputtering sources has been described. However, when three or more sputtering sources are provided or a certain layer has a plurality of materials. Can also be applied to the case where a compound is generated by simultaneously sputtering. Further, in this embodiment, the apparatus having the mechanism and the control circuit for obtaining the film thickness of the substance to be sputtered from the rotation speed of the substrate and the number of times of passing through the shutter has been described.
Other methods, for example, the film thickness may be controlled based on the signal from the film thickness monitor or the film forming time, the shutter may be opened and closed in synchronization with the film thickness, and the sputtering power may be switched.

Further, in the present embodiment, the control system in which the opening and closing of the shutter and the switching of the sputtering power are performed almost at the same time has been shown, but this timing may be slightly shifted. For example, the sputter power may be lowered to the pre-sputter power a little after the shutter is closed, or the sputter power may be switched to the values VaH and VbH required for film formation shortly before the shutter is opened. By doing so, it is possible to avoid the possibility that the plasma in the sputtering apparatus becomes unstable when the opening and closing of the shutter and the switching of the power are performed at the same time. Furthermore, although the present invention has been described with respect to the sputtering apparatus, the present invention can be applied to various PVD apparatuses such as a vacuum vapor deposition apparatus and an ion plating apparatus.

[0014]

As described in detail above, according to the present invention, when a thin film is formed using a PVD apparatus of the same scale as the conventional one, the thickness to be formed and the time required for forming the film are changed. It is possible to obtain the effects described below without any. That is, according to the present invention, the output power of the power source independently provided for each vapor deposition source is changed according to the opening / closing of the shutter, so that the power consumption of the PVD device can be reduced and the life of the vapor deposition source can be greatly extended. It can be postponed. Therefore, more substrates can be deposited without changing the deposition conditions, and the uniformity of thin film performance can be improved.

Further, according to the present invention, the output power of the vapor deposition power source when the shutter is closed is reduced to the extent that an altered layer is not formed on the surface of the vapor deposition source. It is possible to prevent contamination by the vapor deposition substance, improve the purity of the thin film, and start up the vacuum in a short time.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a configuration of an exemplary embodiment according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a control flow of an embodiment according to the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram of a sputtering apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1a, 1b Sputtering source 2a, 2b Sputtering power supply 3a, 3b Shutter 4 Substrate 5 Substrate holder 6 Substrate rotation speed monitor 7a Initial state setting unit 7b Substrate rotation control unit 7c Shutter control unit 7d Sputtering power supply unit 7e Shutter passing count monitor unit 7f Shutter Passing number counting unit 7g Number of times comparing unit 7h Film formation number counting unit 7i Film formation number comparison unit

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A PVD including a plurality of vapor deposition sources, and a power source and a shutter which are independently provided in the vapor deposition sources.
A PVD device, comprising: a power source power varying means for varying output power of the power source in association with opening and closing of the shutter. 2. The PVD device according to claim 1, wherein:
The PVD apparatus, wherein the power source power varying means sets the output power of the power source when the shutter is closed to a minimum value that does not deteriorate the surface of the vapor deposition source. [0001]