JPH0751753B2 - High speed moving film continuous sheet plasma ion plating system - Google Patents

Description

Description: TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to a continuous ion plating apparatus for a large-area film that moves at high speed. More specifically, the present invention relates to an ion plating apparatus using pressure gradient type discharge sheet plasma.

(Prior art and its problems) A thin film (deposited film) of metal, inorganic material, carbon, or organic polymer is formed on the surface of a film of plastic, metal, or the like to form a conductive film, an insulating film, a display element, It is expected that stress will be applied to various application fields such as optical films, electronic devices, and decorations, and many have already been put to practical use.

As a method and apparatus for forming such a thin film,
There is known a method in which vaporized particles from an evaporation source placed in a vacuum vapor deposition apparatus are ionized by glow discharge.
This is a technique called ion plating. It is also known that this ion plating includes a hollow cathode type and a high frequency excitation type.

However, although these ion plating methods are excellent as thin film forming techniques, many problems remain unsolved as a technique and apparatus for forming a thin film on a wide and long film surface. Is in the present situation.

That is, in forming a thin film on a wide and long film surface, in both the width direction and the length direction, a thin film having uniform quality and excellent adhesion is continuously moved. However, efficient construction is required.

However, in the case of the hollow cathode, there is a problem that the cathode part and the like are inevitably soiled and damaged, lack thermal stability, and generate heat in the substrate film. Therefore, it has been difficult to obtain a thin film of excellent quality continuously and uniformly on the moving film surface.

In addition, in the case of high frequency excitation type ion plating, it is extremely effective in stably obtaining a thin film of excellent quality, but in the case of a long, wide and large area film, the thin film can be used efficiently. Was not sufficient in terms of productivity for the purpose of efficient production.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the present invention to solve the problems of the prior art as described above and to provide a new type of device for continuously and efficiently forming a vapor-deposited thin film on the surface of a long and wide film. I am trying. More specifically, the present invention provides a sheet plasma ion plating apparatus for continuously forming a thin film on the surface of a film moving at high speed.

(Means for Solving the Problems) The device of the present invention is intended to solve the above problems.
It is characterized in that a pressure gradient type plasma discharge is used to flatten the plasma flow into a sheet, and a winding device for moving the film at high speed is used to continuously form a thin film.

That is, first, in the pressure gradient type plasma discharge, an intermediate electrode is interposed between the cathode and the anode, and the discharge is performed by keeping the cathode region at about 1 Torr and the anode electrode at about 10 ^-3 Torr. It has already been proposed to use this discharge method as ion plating and flatten the plasma flow generated by discharge into a sheet by magnet means (for example, "Vacuum" Vol. 27, No. 2). ,
P. 64, (1984), Vol. 25, No. 11, p. 719 (1982
Year)).

This ion plating device horizontally ejects a plasma flow from a plasma source installed laterally to the hearth, flattens the plasma flow into a sheet by magnet means, and places the hearth in an upward position ( The sheet-like plasma flow is converged on the hearth by bending just above the (anode) to vaporize the vaporized substance into ions and dry-coat the surface of the object to be treated.

With this device and method, the plasma gun does not become dirty, the reaction speed is high, the plasma is stabilized, the thin film becomes uniform, and it is easy to form a uniform thin film especially in the width direction of the object to be processed. There are advantages.

However, as for the sheet plasma ion plating by such pressure gradient type discharge, the practical technique and the practical device have not been sufficiently examined, and particularly, the article or the film in a large area and in the process of moving is in progress. Nothing is known about the selection of equipment suitable for dry coating on objects and the operating conditions of the equipment. Moreover, even if it applies to these objects, it is in the present situation which is totally unexpected.

The present invention realizes these things concretely for the first time.

Next, an outline of the device of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

1 and 2 of the accompanying drawings show an example of the apparatus of the present invention. In FIG. 1, (1) in the figure is a vacuum chamber, which is kept airtight by a bell jar (2). The vacuum chamber is evacuated by a vacuum pump. The bell jar (2) is provided with a vacuum gas exhaust port and an inlet port for the reaction gas. Further, inside the bell jar (2), a hearth (3) of a raw material evaporating substance for forming a thin film, a pressure gradient type plasma gun (4), a roll (5) as a film feeding means, and a film winding means. Roll (6)
To provide. Further, if necessary, a roll (7) as a guide means and a cooling means (8) such as a water cooling system are provided as needed. (9) shows a plasma flow, and (10) shows a magnet for flattening a sheet of plasma. Although FIG. 1 shows a cross section of a box-type bell jar,
The shape and structure of the bell jar are not limited to this.

When the roll unit is rotationally driven and a cooling unit is provided, it can be water-cooled, air-cooled, or the like. Further, in consideration of the type of evaporation source material, production efficiency, etc., forced heating means such as resistance heating or high frequency heating can be appropriately used in the hearth portion.

The roll portion, or the roll portion and the cooling means, or the hearth portion may be configured so that the side wall of the bell jar can be opened and closed, and can be freely taken in and out from the bell jar in the lateral direction.

Of course, the invention is not limited to such devices.

For example, the roll portion does not necessarily have to be provided inside the bell jar. It is also possible to form a slit in the side wall of the bell jar, take a film in and out, and use a film moving means of a pretreatment unit such as a plasma bombardment treatment or a posttreatment unit which is connected to the thin film formation unit.

Also, a means for applying a negative voltage can be provided on the upper surface of the film opposite to the thin film formation.

FIG. 2 is a sectional view of the device shown in FIG. 1 taken along the line AA '. The plasma flow is flattened into a sheet,
Widely spread in the width direction. This enables efficient ion plating on a large area and wide film.

With regard to the continuous ion plating apparatus for a high speed moving film as shown in FIG. 2, various operating conditions can be appropriately selected according to the intended use of the thin film vapor deposition film.

For example, as the film moving at high speed, any heat resistant film such as polyester, polysalphone, polyamide, polyimide, metal, ceramics, or composite film thereof can be used. The moving speed of this film can also be set in a wide range of, for example, 6 m / min to 30 m / min, more preferably 10 m / min to 30 m / min. The width of the film can be up to about 1000 mm to 1500 mm.

The thin film forming material is not particularly limited. It can be appropriately selected from metals, inorganic substances, and organic substances.

The reaction pressure is in the wide range of 1 × 10 ⁻⁵ to 10 ⁻¹ Torr,
And gases such as argon, helium, and hydrogen, and oxygen,
A reactive gas such as nitrogen or an organic monomer can be used. For example, when forming a thin film of ITO or the like, the oxygen partial pressure can be in the range of about 1 × 10 ⁻⁵ to 1 × 10 ⁻³ .

The discharge voltage is, for example, 50 to 100 V, and the current is appropriately selected depending on the evaporation material.

Further, the magnet for flattening the sheet into a flat plate of plasma can be usually constructed as an electromagnet.

With the device of the present invention as described above, for example, 1000 mm
The wide film described above can be continuously produced at a high speed of 10 m / min to 30 m / min. Such an excellent effect is completely unexpected from the hitherto known techniques.

Example 1 Actually, in the apparatus of FIGS. 1 and 2, 125 μm
Using two plasma guns, magnets, and hearths arranged in parallel in the direction of travel for a PET film with a thickness of 1500 mm, a current (per plasma gun) 210A, a voltage (same as above) 68V, with argon partial pressure of 2.0 × 10 ^-4 Torr · O ₂ partial pressure 1.1 × 10 ^-4 Torr, the film travel speed 17m / min conditions, evaporation sources 4% S _n O ₂ content of ITO (indium tin oxide) As an ITO thin film was deposited. The sheet-shaped plasma spread to a width of 700 to 800 mm.

As a result, a transparent conductive thin film having the following excellent characteristics was obtained.

・ Surface resistance 120Ω / □ ・ Film thickness 270Å ・ Light transmittance 82% (Film blank value 86%) ・ Volume resistance 8.7 × 10 ^-4 Ω ・ cm Moreover, when this vapor deposition was applied twice to the film, Excellent results were obtained with a surface resistance of 70Ω / □, a film thickness of 590Å, and a light transmittance of 83%.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic sectional view showing an example of the apparatus of the present invention. FIG. 2 is a sectional view showing an AA ′ section of FIG. The numbers in the figure indicate the following. 1 ... Vacuum chamber, 6 ... Winding roll, 2 ... Belger, 7 ... Guide roll, 3 ... Hearth, 8 ... Cooling means, 4 ... Plasma gun, 9 ... Plasma flow, 5 ... Sending roll, 10 ... Magnet.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A vacuum chamber; an exhaust system; a gas introduction system; an evaporation source of a thin film forming material; a forced evaporation means of an evaporation source provided if necessary; a pressure gradient type plasma gun; and an injection from the plasma gun. A magnet for flattening the formed plasma flow into a sheet; a film feeding means and a film winding means; a guide means and a film cooling means, which are provided if necessary, and the plasma flow flattened into the sheet shape described above. A continuous sheet plasma of a high-speed moving film characterized by forming a thin film on the surface of a large-area film moving at high speed by converging on the evaporation source to evaporate and ionize the evaporation source substance, and by the generated ionized particles. Ion plating device.