Patent Application: US-32775606-A

Abstract:
this invention describes an apparatus , scanning localized evaporation methodology for the close proximity deposition of thin films with high feature definition , high deposition rates , and significantly improved material economy . an array of fixed thin film heating elements , each capable of being individually energized , is mounted on a transport mechanism inside a vacuum chamber . the evaporable material is deposited on a heating element . the slem system loads the surface of heating elements , made of foils , with evaporable material . the loaded thin film heating element is transported to the substrate site for re - evaporation . the re - evaporation onto a substrate , which is maintained at the desired temperature , takes place through a mask . the mask , having patterned openings dictated by the structural requirements of the fabrication , may be heated to prevent clogging of the openings . the translation of the substrate past the evaporation site permits replication of the pattern over its entire surface . a multiplicity of fixed thin film heating element arrays is provided that can operate simultaneously or in sequence . multi - layered structures of evaporable materials with high in - plane spatial pattern resolution can be deposited using this apparatus . in one version of the invention , the transport of the evaporant - loaded thin film heating elements is accomplished by the use of cylindrical rotors on whose circumference the heating elements are mounted .

Description:
fig3 depicts schematically the scanning localized evaporation methodology ( slem ) process for depositing thin films onto substrates , which are placed in close proximity to the deposition source . a thin film deposition cycle begins at the loading station , where evaporation of a sublimable material commences on to an array of heater elements . the heater elements are mounted on a first transport mechanism . the thickness of the deposited film on a selected heating element can be determined at the monitoring station , when this heating element is positioned opposite to the monitoring station by the first transport mechanism . the same transport mechanism also brings the loaded heating elements to the deposition site . here , the thin film is re - evaporated and deposited through a mask onto a substrate . the substrate is mounted on a second transport mechanism that provides the means to move and index it relative to the mask . in the case where the substrate is larger than the mask pattern , the indexed motion of the substrate permits precise replication and registration of the pattern across the full area of the substrate . the un - evaporated material from the heating element surface is finally removed and collected at the retrieval station . the loading , monitoring , deposition and retrieval of evaporable material constitutes a slem deposition cycle . many of such deposition cycles may be used to achieve a desired device structure . in one case the transport mechanism may be a cylindrical rotor as shown in fig4 . here , a thin low - thermal mass continuous strip heater , mounted on the circumference of the rotor , is used as an evaporant source for the vacuum deposition of thin films of various electronic materials , notably organic semiconductors . the thin film thus deposited has a thickness ranging between 30 angstroms to 20 , 000 angstroms . the thin film has lower thermal mass than the substrate resulting in fast evaporation due to enhanced temperature for a given electrical input energy . since the evaporant films are comparable in thickness to heaters , they can be re - deposited on substrates ( via a heated mask assembly ( in a localized manner and with minimal heat . conductive materials , such as metals , needed to make electrical contacts to organic semiconductor films , may also be deposited using this method . the rotor is attached to a shaft , which is driven by an external motor . the shaft may be a hollow tube carrying electrical wires and cooling lines to the rotors . the rotor may be of almost any dimension , its radius limited in size only by the dimensions of the vacuum chamber in which it is mounted . the thickness of the rotor disk is determined by such considerations as the size of the mask . other sizing constraints are imposed by electrical power distribution system and cooling requirements . the rotor 17 supports on its circumference a heating element 19 that can be made of either one continuous strip or of several discrete segments . this heating element 19 is comprised of , but is not limited to , a metallic foil , a carbon nanotube paper , a graphite paper , a doped semiconductor foil , or an electrically conductive fiber composite . typically , the surface of the heating element 19 is coated with a layer 16 ( see also fig5 ) of a desired material from an evaporative loading source 15 . layer 16 is re - evaporated at the substrate location from the segment of the heating element 19 , which is powered by appropriately placed electrodes 18 , when the rotor aligns the designated segment with the brushes 20 , contacting the inside of electrodes 18 . the material 16 is deposited onto the substrate 13 through a mask 23 that may be heated to avoid clogging of the openings by the evaporant . the substrate 13 may be cooled to prevent any adverse effects due to an increase in temperature from the nearby heated mask 23 and heating element 19 . the mass of the material 16 , which has been loaded onto the heating element 19 , can be measured by a quartz crystal microbalance thickness monitor placed between the loading and deposition sites . for example , the rate of evaporation for a given electrical power to the heater segment 19 can be periodically measured by evaporating onto the thickness monitor 21 using the set of brushes 22 . alternatively , a passive technique such as , but not limited to , ellipsometry can be used to continuously measure the thickness of the deposited layer 16 on the heating element 19 . this enables control of both deposition rate and thickness of the evaporated material on the substrate 13 . the material remaining on the heating element 19 , after the deposition of the evaporant on the substrate , may be recovered using the retrieval unit 24 , powered by the set of brushes 25 . the rotor may be constructed from aluminum or its alloys where the conducting electrodes 18 are embedded in the rotor 17 . the electrodes are insulated from the body of the rotor by embedding them in insulating anodized wells in the aluminum rotor or by insulating them using other materials . the high resistivity of the heating element 19 , allows a number of heating zones to be simultaneously energized at the circumference of the rotor , without one heating element interfering with operation of another . the high resistivity of single wall carbon nanotubes ( swnts ) relative to that of tungsten makes it suitable for a localized thermal evaporation heater . in addition , the extremely high thermal conductivity of swnts also provides rapid cooling of the swnt “ paper ” in regions where current does not flow , thus further localizing the evaporation area alternatively , one can use electronic multiplexer circuits to power an array of heating elements with fewer electrical connections . fig5 is a three dimensional illustration of the slem rotor showing loading a material 16 from a source 15 on to the heater 19 . the re - evaporation is accomplished when the appropriate heater segment is aligned with contacts or brushes 20 and mask assembly 23 . fig6 shows a schematic illustration of an assembly of stacked - rotors capable of depositing a multiplicity of materials , one material per rotor , to realize multi - layered thin - film devices . the rotors 26 are separated by spacers 27 , which can be used for cooling , ancillary drive mechanisms , or as insulating spacers . fig7 shows a schematic illustration of a slem rotor capable of co - evaporating two sublimable materials . two loading sources 28 and 32 are provided to deposit separate materials 29 and 33 , respectively . here , monitoring devices are shown as 30 for the first material 29 , and 34 for the combination of material 29 and 33 . the respective brushes , delivering power to these monitoring units , are 31 and 22 . the two layers of materials 29 and 33 could be placed side by side on a heater surface or they can be stacked one on top of the other ( as shown in fig7 ), depending on the application . the relative thickness of layers 29 and 33 can be used to provide flexibility in materials composition of the co - evaporated film 35 . similarly , the composite film 35 is evaporated in a predetermined pattern on the substrate 13 using an appropriate mask 23 . any excess material 35 remaining on a heating element after re - evaporation is retrieved in a collector 24 by powering the segment contacted by the brushes 25 . the apparent sublimation temperature differences for the two materials 29 and 33 become insignificant at the localized evaporation region 35 due to the small amount of materials present at any time . co - evaporation may be used to obtain a layer of one material doped with another . fig8 illustrates schematically the typical slem deposition cycle to obtain a full color oled fpd , using a stacked - rotor assembly capable of depositing multi - layered devices on a substrate 13 . here , the position of substrate 13 ( fig8 b ) is indexed with respect to the masks ( fig8 c ) and moved by a precision x - y stage . alternatively , the rotor assembly along with its masks may be translated and indexed above a substrate . herein , a typical active - matrix addressed oled display , as shown in fig1 ( b ) and 1 ( c ) ( also shown in fig8 a for clarity ), requires eight different materials ( 12 , 11 , 10 , 9 , 8 , 7 , 6 and 4 ) to be deposited in the indicated sequence , onto selected locations 5 . this is accomplished using an array of eight slem rotors ( each dedicated to an individual material ), like the one shown in fig6 . the specific arrangement of the eight stationary masks 36 , 36 , 37 , 38 , 39 , 36 , 36 , 36 located at the rotor site facing the substrate , is referenced to the pixel spacing , as indicated by the location of the ito pads 5 on the substrate 13 , having in this example 12 rows and 12 columns making a 12 × 4 rgb array shown in fig8 b . in our scheme , red , green and blue elements , indicated with r , g , b ito pads 5 , constitute a full color pixel . the configuration of these elements may be positioned linearly along the x - axis ( fig8 b ) , or in an other manner . since layers of five materials ( 12 , 11 , 7 , 6 , 4 ) are deposited uniformly through out the entire substrate , common masks 36 comprised of open windows are employed ( fig8 c ). the need to deposit red 8 , green 9 and blue 10 emitting layers at the specified ito locations requires the use of patterned masks 37 , 38 and 39 respectively . the substrate 13 is mounted on the x - y stage , which is first scanned following the pattern 40 ( fig8 d ). a typical scanning cycle completes the scanning of all the columns of the substrate 13 along the x - axis , in steps equivalent to three ito pad elements ( including their interpad spacing ), before advancing a step along the y - axis 40 . this process is repeated until the entire substrate traverses throughout all eight masks . fig8 e illustrates the manner in which the deposition of various evaporants ( 12 , 11 , 8 , 9 , 10 , 7 , 6 and 4 ) progresses as the substrate advances past the rotor discs . the evaporation of various materials can be started and stopped in time significantly shorter than the time required to advance the substrate to the next step . this prevents cross - contamination between pixels and also provides desired thickness uniformity . the required thickness of a particular layer , determined by its function , can be attained by varying the residence time , the rate of evaporation and length of the mask . the novelty of slem arises from its close proximity evaporation , the in - situ patterning , and completion of a device structure ( consisting of multiple layers ) in a single vacuum pump down step . current projections indicate deposition times is in the range of 3 to 7 minutes for growing a 3 ″× 4 ″ oled display , consisting of an array of 270 × 360 pixels . while the preferred embodiments of the invention have been described , it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various modifications may be made in the embodiments without departing from the spirit of the present invention . examples of such modified embodiments , which are within the scope of this invention , include the heater element materials such as nanotube carbon paper with appropriate resistivity ( swnt ), and tungsten films . we have described a typical transport mechanism using the example of a cylindrical rotor structure . however , its shape and design can be varied depending on the application . in addition , delivery of power to the heater elements can be realized in a variety of ways , including brushes or multiplexing circuits . variations are envisioned in the configuration of the evaporation sources , substrates holding fixtures , and mask configurations . either the heater array or the substrate ( s ) is mounted on a high - 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