CN-121555975-B - Vacuum coating method and system

CN121555975BCN 121555975 BCN121555975 BCN 121555975BCN-121555975-B

Abstract

The invention discloses a vacuum coating method and a vacuum coating system. The system comprises a first sputtering chamber, a first vacuum transmission channel, a CVD chamber, a second vacuum transmission channel and a second sputtering chamber which are communicated in sequence. According to the invention, a pressure gradient is established between the first sputtering chamber and the CVD chamber by utilizing a flow resistance throttling effect formed when the substrate moves in the first vacuum transmission channel, active plasma in the CVD chamber is driven to form reverse jet flow pointing to the first sputtering chamber, and in-situ hybridization reaction is carried out on the first metal layer on the surface of the substrate, so that a gradient transition layer is constructed. According to the invention, a physical gate valve is abandoned, the particle pollution is eliminated, and the binding force and weather resistance of the HUD reflecting mirror film layer are obviously improved.

Inventors

WANG ZHIDONG
SUN XUKE
GAO WEIHUA
CHEN SHUN
SUN JIEKE
SHEN JINQIANG
ZHAO HONGMING

Assignees

宁波锦辉光学科技股份有限公司

Dates

Publication Date: 20260505
Application Date: 20260121

Claims (8)

1. A vacuum coating method applied to a vacuum coating system (100), the vacuum coating system (100) comprising a first sputtering chamber (10) and a CVD chamber (20) in communication via a first vacuum transfer path (30), the vacuum coating method comprising: S1, placing a substrate (1) to be coated in a first sputtering chamber (10), regulating the pressure of the first sputtering chamber (10) to a first pressure, and depositing a first metal layer on the surface of the substrate (1); S2, driving the substrate (1) to move from the first sputtering chamber (10) to the CVD chamber (20) through the first vacuum transmission channel (30), and when the substrate (1) is positioned in the first vacuum transmission channel (30), reducing the effective ventilation cross section of the first vacuum transmission channel (30) by using the substrate (1) so as to establish a flow resistance throttling area; S3, injecting chemical vapor deposition precursor gas into the CVD chamber (20) under the state of maintaining the flow resistance throttling area so as to enable the pressure in the CVD chamber (20) to rise to a second pressure higher than the first pressure and excite the chemical vapor deposition precursor gas to generate active plasmas, and driving the active plasmas in the CVD chamber (20) to form reverse jet flow which points to the first sputtering chamber (10) through the first vacuum transmission channel (30) by utilizing pressure gradients formed at two sides of the flow resistance throttling area, wherein the reverse jet flow carries out in-situ hybridization reaction on a first metal layer on the surface of the substrate (1) in the first vacuum transmission channel (30), so that a gradient transition layer of metal organic hybridization is formed on the surface of the first metal layer in situ; S4, after the substrate (1) is completely conveyed into the CVD chamber (20), the reverse jet flow is stopped due to the disappearance of the flow resistance throttling area, then the CVD chamber (20) is regulated to a third pressure which is smaller than or equal to the first pressure, and an organic protective layer is deposited on the surface of the gradient transition layer.
2. The vacuum coating method according to claim 1, further comprising, after step S4, step S5 of driving the substrate (1) to move from the CVD chamber (20) into a second sputtering chamber (90) via a second vacuum transfer channel (80), depositing a second metal layer on the organic protective layer surface.
3. Vacuum coating method according to claim 2, characterized in that the CVD chamber (20) is connected with an exhaust unit (50); After step S5, the method further comprises step S6, after the substrate (1) finishes depositing the second metal layer, controlling the operation of the exhaust unit (50) to pump out the chemical vapor deposition precursor gas remained in the CVD chamber (20) until the background pressure in the CVD chamber (20) is lower than a preset cleaning threshold value, and then carrying out the transmission of the next substrate.
4. The vacuum coating method according to claim 1, wherein the first sputtering chamber (10) is connected with a gas analyzer (70), and in step S3, the gas analyzer (70) monitors an organic gas partial pressure signal in the first sputtering chamber (10) in real time, and when detecting that the organic gas partial pressure signal exceeds a preset safety threshold, forcibly interrupts the injection of the chemical vapor deposition precursor gas into the CVD chamber (20) and alarms.
5. The method according to claim 1, wherein the first metal layer is an aluminum layer or a niobium layer, the chemical vapor deposition precursor gas is selected from hexamethyldisiloxane or hexamethyldisilazane, and the gradient transition layer comprises a bonding structure composed of aluminum, oxygen, silicon, and carbon elements, or comprises a bonding structure composed of niobium, silicon, and carbon elements.
6. A vacuum coating system (100), comprising: a first sputtering chamber (10) provided with a first sputtering source (11) for depositing a first metal layer on the surface of the substrate (1); A CVD chamber (20) provided with a gas supply unit (21) for injecting a chemical vapor deposition precursor gas into the CVD chamber (20), and a radio frequency power supply (22) for exciting the chemical vapor deposition precursor gas to generate an active plasma; a first vacuum transfer channel (30) communicating the first sputtering chamber (10) with the CVD chamber (20); A transport mechanism (40) configured to hold a substrate (1) and to bring the substrate (1) to the CVD chamber (20) via the first vacuum transport path (30) from the first sputtering chamber (10), and The controller (60) is electrically connected with the first sputtering source (11), the air supply unit (21), the radio frequency power supply (22) and the transmission mechanism (40) respectively; The controller (60) is configured to perform the vacuum coating method according to any one of claims 1 to 5.
7. The vacuum coating system (100) of claim 6, wherein the vacuum coating system (100) further comprises a second sputtering chamber (90) in communication with the CVD chamber (20) through a second vacuum transfer channel (80), the second sputtering chamber (90) configured with a second sputtering source (91); The first sputtering chamber (10), the first vacuum transmission channel (30), the CVD chamber (20), the second vacuum transmission channel (80) and the second sputtering chamber (90) are sequentially communicated along the transmission direction of the substrate (1); The first sputtering source (11) comprises a direct current power supply and an aluminum target, the radio frequency power supply (22) is a capacitive coupling plasma source, and the second sputtering source (91) comprises an intermediate frequency power supply and a niobium target.
8. The vacuum coating system (100) of claim 7, wherein the transport mechanism (40) comprises: A guide rail (42) passing through the first sputtering chamber (10), the first vacuum transmission channel (30), the CVD chamber (20), the second vacuum transmission channel (80) and the second sputtering chamber (90) in sequence; And the movable clamping carrier (41) is arranged on the guide rail (42) in a sliding manner and is used for clamping the substrate (1) and controllably moving along the guide rail (42).

Description

Vacuum coating method and system Technical Field The invention relates to the technical field of vacuum coating, in particular to a vacuum coating method and a vacuum coating system. Background With the development of automobile intellectualization and aviation technology, a head-up display system (HUD) has become a key equipment for improving driving safety and interactive experience. One of the core optical elements of HUD systems is an optical mirror, which is typically composed of a curved substrate (e.g., optical glass, PC or PMMA, etc.) and a highly reflective metal film layer (e.g., aluminum or niobium layer) deposited on its surface. In order to ensure that the HUD mirror maintains stable optical performance for a long time under severe vehicle-mounted or airborne environments such as high temperature, high humidity, ultraviolet irradiation, frequent cold and hot impact and the like, an organic protective layer (such as an organic silicon polymer such as HMDSO) is generally deposited on the surface of the metal reflective layer so as to play roles in oxidation resistance, corrosion resistance and scratch resistance. However, in the existing HUD mirror mass production manufacturing process, there are mainly two technical problems to be solved, and these two problems directly limit the improvement of the product yield and the reduction of the cost: 1. the metal reflecting layer (inorganic material) and the organic protecting layer (organic material) belong to material systems with distinct properties, and the lattice structure, the thermal expansion coefficient and the surface energy of the metal reflecting layer (inorganic material) and the organic protecting layer (organic material) have huge differences. In conventional processes, the metal reflective layer is typically sputtered first in a vacuum environment, followed by direct deposition of the organic protective layer, with only physical stacking therebetween, and a lack of a strong chemical bonding transition at the interface. In a cold and hot impact test or a high-temperature and high-humidity test with strict vehicle gauge level, foaming, cracking and even falling off are extremely easy to occur at the interface of the film layer due to stress concentration of thermal expansion and cold contraction, so that ghosting, blurring or black spots appear in HUD imaging, and the driving safety is seriously influenced. 2. The metal magnetron sputtering process is typically required to be performed at very low background gas pressures to ensure purity and reflectivity of the metal reflective layer, while the Chemical Vapor Deposition (CVD) process typically requires higher process pressures and is filled with reactive organic precursor gases. In a continuous production line, to prevent the high pressure reactant gases of the CVD chamber from flowing back to contaminate the sputtering chamber, the prior art generally employs two approaches, one to provide a transition chamber with a physical gate valve and the other to add a separate buffer chamber. However, the physical gate valve scheme has obvious defects that micro particles are easy to generate due to frequent mechanical opening and closing actions, pinhole defects are formed when the particles fall on the surface of the reflecting mirror, so that the reflecting mirror is corroded by pinholes in a wet environment, and meanwhile, the gate valve action limits the continuous transmission speed of the substrate and reduces the production takt. The independent buffer chamber approach significantly increases the footprint and manufacturing cost of the apparatus and makes it difficult to efficiently process the substrate interface during transport. Therefore, a vacuum coating method and a system which can cancel a physical gate valve, realize process dynamic isolation in a continuous transmission process, and construct a gradient transition layer with high compactness and high binding force in situ so as to remarkably improve the weather resistance of the HUD reflector are needed. Disclosure of Invention The invention aims to provide a vacuum coating method and a vacuum coating system, which mainly solve the technical problems that in the preparation process of an optical element in the prior art, the interface binding force between a metal layer and an organic protective layer is poor, so that the weather resistance is insufficient, and the process isolation and the cross contamination prevention are difficult to be simultaneously realized in continuous production. In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides a vacuum coating method applied to a vacuum coating system including a first sputtering chamber and a CVD chamber which are communicated through a first vacuum transmission passage, the vacuum coating method comprising: S1, placing a substrate to be coated in a first sputtering chamber, regulating the pressure of the first sputtering chamber to a first pressure, and depositi