Thin film deposition apparatus including deposition blade

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9593408-B2
Application number	US-81567310-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 15, 2010
Priority date	Aug 10, 2009
Publication date	Mar 14, 2017
Grant date	Mar 14, 2017

Abstract

A thin film deposition apparatus includes a deposition source that is disposed opposite to a substrate and holds a deposition material that is vaporized; a first nozzle unit disposed between the substrate and the deposition source and having first slit units arranged in a first direction of the substrate; a second nozzle unit disposed between the first nozzle unit and the substrate and having second slit units arranged in the first direction of the substrate; and at least one barrier member assembly disposed between the first nozzle unit and the second nozzle unit and partitioning the space between the first nozzle unit and the second nozzle unit. A deposition blade is optionally disposed in any space formed between the first nozzle unit and the second nozzle unit during a stand-by mode to prevent the deposition of the deposition material from being deposited onto undesirable regions of the chamber.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method of performing deposition on a substrate, the method comprising:
completing a deposition process on the substrate by depositing a deposition material from a deposition source which holds the deposition material, after passing the deposition material through a first nozzle unit comprising a plurality of first slit units arranged in a first axis direction of the substrate, and a second nozzle unit comprising a plurality of second slit units arranged in the first axis direction, wherein the deposition source and the first and second nozzle units are configured to move relative to the substrate in a second axis direction perpendicular to the first axis direction during the deposition process, and wherein the second nozzle unit defines a pattern of the deposition material on the substrate;
entering a stand-by mode between the deposition process and another deposition process;
inserting a deposition blade into a space between the first and second nozzle units by moving the deposition source and the first and second nozzle units along the second axis direction, to block the deposition material passing through the first nozzle from passing through the second nozzle unit during the stand-by mode; and
removing the deposition blade from the space by moving the first and second nozzle units along the second axis direction, to allow the deposition material to pass through the second nozzle unit during the another deposition process.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein:
the completing the deposition process further comprises guiding the deposition material between the first nozzle unit and the second nozzle unit using a barrier wall assembly which partitions the space, and
the inserting the deposition blade comprises inserting the deposition blade in a gap between the barrier wall assembly and one of the first and second nozzle units.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein:
the completing the deposition process further comprises guiding the deposition material between the first nozzle unit and the second nozzle unit using first barrier wall assembly comprising a plurality of first barrier walls and a second barrier wall assembly disposed between the first barrier wall assembly and the second nozzle unit and comprising a plurality of second barrier walls, the first and second barrier walls being arranged to partition the space between the first nozzle unit and the second nozzle unit, and
the inserting the deposition blade comprises inserting the deposition blade in a gap between the first and second barrier wall assemblies.

4. The method of claim 1 , further comprising removing the substrate used in the deposition process and inserting another substrate to be used in the another deposition process after inserting the deposition blade and prior to removing the deposition blade.

Assignees

• Lee Jung-Min
• Lee Choong-Ho
• Samsung Display Co Ltd

Inventors

• Lee Jung-Min
• Lee Choong-Ho

Classifications

• C23C14/12

  Organic material · CPC title

• C23C14/243 Primary

  Crucibles for source material (C23C14/28, C23C14/30 take precedence) · CPC title

• C23C14/042

  using masks · CPC title

• C23C14/24 Primary

  Vacuum evaporation · CPC title

• H05B33/10

  Apparatus or processes specially adapted to the manufacture of electroluminescent light sources · CPC title