Binding method of ITO target material and ITO target material

Abstract

The invention discloses a binding method of an ITO target material, and discloses the ITO target material, and the binding method of the ITO target material comprises the following steps: 1, obtaining an indium block, the target material and a back tube; 2, pure indium is heated to a molten state to form indium liquid, and zinc is doped in the indium liquid; thirdly, the inner surface of the target material is coated with the zinc-doped indium liquid, the outer surface of the back pipe is coated with the zinc-doped indium liquid, the back pipe is sleeved with the target material so that a gap can be formed between the target material and the back pipe, and the target material and the back pipe are fixed through a binding tool; step 4, casting zinc-doped indium liquid into the gap to enable the gap to be filled with the zinc-doped indium liquid so as to form a binding layer; 5, the target material, the back pipe and the binding layer are cooled, and the binding tool is disassembled; the indium containing zinc has better fluidity than pure indium in a liquid state, and when the zinc-doped indium liquid is cast in the gap between the target material and the back tube, the flow resistance of the zinc-doped indium liquid is reduced, so that the binding fitting rate of the target material and the back tube can be improved.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The invention relates to the technical field of target materials, and in particular to a binding method of an ITO target material and the ITO target material. Background Art

[0002] The target material of magnetron sputtering is a photoelectric functional material. The existing ITO (Indium Tin Oxide) target material is composed of a target material and a back tube through binding. ITO target material currently uses indium as the bonding material of the solder. The inner surface of the target material and the outer surface of the back tube are coated with indium by an ultrasonic coating machine, and then the target material is sleeved on the outside of the back tube. The target material and the back tube are placed on a heating furnace and heated to an appropriate temperature. Indium liquid is poured in and the target material is placed on the indium layer. The temperature is lowered so that the target material and the back tube are finally welded together.

[0003] During the magnetron sputtering process, electrons bombard the target surface, causing the target surface to heat up. At the same time, the target needs to be kept at a stable temperature to maintain a stable sputtering process, and the heat transfer and heat dissipation between the back tube and the target needs to be uniform and good. In this way, the target can avoid cracking or indium overflow due to high local temperature during the sputtering process.

[0004] However, due to the influence of surface tension in the indium layer between the target material and the back tube during binding, there is a certain resistance to the flow of the indium layer, and small bubbles or gaps appear in local positions of the indium layer. After the binding is completed, there are local gaps without indium, and the target material and the back tube cannot fit completely. During the magnetron sputtering process, the heat transfer at the gap position is poor, the local temperature of the target material is high, and cracking problems are prone to occur. Summary of the invention

[0005] The present invention aims to solve at least one of the technical problems existing in the prior art. To this end, the present invention provides a method for binding an ITO target material, which can improve the bonding rate between the target material and the back tube and avoid cracking of the target material.

[0006] The present invention also provides an ITO target material prepared by the above-mentioned ITO target material binding method.

[0007] The method for binding an ITO target according to the first aspect of the present invention comprises the following steps:

[0008] Step 1: Obtain indium block, target material and backing tube;

[0009] Step 2: heating pure indium to a molten state to form an indium liquid, and doping zinc into the indium liquid;

[0010] Step 3: Apply zinc-doped indium liquid on the inner surface of the target material, and apply zinc-doped indium liquid on the outer surface of the back tube, sleeve the target material on the back tube so that there is a gap between the target material and the back tube, and fix the target material and the back tube by binding tooling;

[0011] Step 4: casting the zinc-doped indium liquid into the gap, so that the zinc-doped indium liquid fills the gap to form a binding layer;

[0012] Step five: Cooling the target material, the back tube and the binding layer.

[0013] The ITO target binding method according to the first aspect of the present invention has at least the following beneficial effects:

[0014] By doping zinc into the indium liquid, the addition of zinc turns the indium into an alloy indium doped with zinc. Indium containing zinc has better fluidity in liquid state than pure indium. When the zinc-doped indium liquid is cast in the gap between the target material and the back tube, the flow resistance of the zinc-doped indium liquid is reduced, which can facilitate the discharge of gas in the gap between the target material and the back tube, and the exhaust is smoother, so as to reduce the presence of gaps between the target material and the back tube, and improve the binding and bonding rate between the target material and the back tube. During the magnetron sputtering process, the heat transfer efficiency of the target material is improved, and heat can be transferred evenly, which can reduce the problem of cracking of the target material, thereby improving the service life of the ITO target material.

[0015] According to some embodiments of the present invention, in step three, before applying zinc-doped indium liquid to the inner surface of the target material and the outer surface of the back tube, the target material and the back tube are heated so that the temperature of the target material and the back tube is greater than 180°C and less than 230°C, and the temperature is kept constant for 60 to 150 minutes.

[0016] According to some embodiments of the present invention, the inner surface of the target material and the outer surface of the back tube are coated with zinc-doped indium liquid by ultrasonic coating equipment.

[0017] According to some embodiments of the present invention, after zinc-doped indium liquid is applied to the inner surface of the target material and the outer surface of the back tube, the back tube and the target material are arranged upright, and the target material is sleeved on the back tube, and then the bottom of the back tube and the bottom of the target material are sealed.

[0018] According to some embodiments of the present invention, in the zinc-doped indium liquid, the mass composition of zinc is 0.001% to 0.00015%.

[0019] According to some embodiments of the present invention, in step three, the heating rate is 0.5-0.8° C. / min.

[0020] According to some embodiments of the present invention, during the process of filling the zinc-doped indium liquid, the temperature of the inner surface of the target material and the outer surface of the back tube is controlled to be 157-200°C.

[0021] According to some embodiments of the present invention, in step five, the cooling rate is 0.3-0.8°C / min. When the temperature of the target material and the back tube is cooled to room temperature, the binding tool is removed to obtain the bound ITO target material.

[0022] According to the second aspect of the present invention, the ITO target material includes a target material, a back tube and a binding layer, wherein the target material is sleeved on the back tube, the binding layer is arranged between the target material and the back tube, and the binding layer fills the gap between the target material and the back tube, wherein the binding layer is composed of indium and zinc.

[0023] According to some embodiments of the present invention, in the binding layer, the mass composition of zinc is 0.001% to 0.00015%.

[0024] Additional aspects and advantages of the present invention will be given in part in the following description and in part will be obvious from the following description, or will be learned through practice of the present invention. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0025] The above and / or additional aspects and advantages of the present invention will become apparent and easily understood from the description of the embodiments in conjunction with the following drawings, in which:

[0026] Figure 1 It is a schematic diagram of the process of the ITO target material binding method according to an embodiment of the present invention. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0027] Embodiments of the present invention are described in detail below, examples of which are shown in the accompanying drawings, wherein the same or similar reference numerals throughout represent the same or similar elements or elements having the same or similar functions. The embodiments described below with reference to the accompanying drawings are exemplary and are only used to explain the present invention, and cannot be understood as limiting the present invention.

[0028] In the description of the present invention, it should be understood that descriptions involving orientations, such as up, down, front, back, left, right, etc., and orientations or positional relationships indicated are based on the orientations or positional relationships shown in the accompanying drawings, and are only for the convenience of describing the present invention and simplifying the description, and do not indicate or imply that the device or element referred to must have a specific orientation, be constructed and operated in a specific orientation, and therefore should not be understood as a limitation on the present invention.

[0029] In the description of the present invention, "several" means one or more, "more" means more than two, "greater than", "less than", "exceed" etc. are understood as not including the number itself, and "above", "below", "within" etc. are understood as including the number itself. If there is a description of "first" or "second", it is only used for the purpose of distinguishing the technical features, and cannot be understood as indicating or implying the relative importance or implicitly indicating the number of the indicated technical features or implicitly indicating the order of the indicated technical features.

[0030] In the description of the present invention, unless otherwise clearly defined, terms such as setting, installing, connecting, etc. should be understood in a broad sense, and technicians in the relevant technical field can reasonably determine the specific meanings of the above terms in the present invention based on the specific content of the technical solution.

[0031] In the related technology, the target material of magnetron sputtering is a photoelectric functional material. The existing ITO (Indium Tin Oxide) target material is composed of a target material and a back tube by binding. The ITO target material currently uses indium as the bonding material of the solder. The inner surface of the target material and the outer surface of the back tube are coated with indium by an ultrasonic coating machine, and then the target material is sleeved on the outside of the back tube. The target material and the back tube are placed on a heating furnace as a whole and heated to an appropriate temperature. Indium liquid is poured in and the target material is placed on the indium layer, and the temperature is lowered so that the target material and the back tube are finally welded together.

[0032] During the magnetron sputtering process, electrons bombard the target surface, causing the target surface to heat up. At the same time, the target needs to be kept at a stable temperature to maintain the stability of the sputtering process, and the heat transfer and heat dissipation between the back tube and the target needs to be uniform and good. In this way, the target avoids cracking or indium overflow due to local high temperature during the sputtering process. However, due to the influence of surface tension and other factors on the indium layer between the target and the back tube during binding, there is a certain resistance to the flow of the indium layer, and small bubbles or gaps appear in local positions of the indium layer. After the binding is completed, there are gaps without indium in local positions, and the target and the back tube cannot be fully fitted. During the magnetron sputtering process, the gap position has poor heat transfer, and the local temperature of the target is high, which is prone to cracking.

[0033] Reference Figure 1 According to the first aspect of the present invention, the ITO target material binding method comprises the following steps:

[0034] Step 1: Obtain indium block, target material and backing tube;

[0035] Step 2: heating pure indium to a molten state to form an indium liquid, and doping zinc into the indium liquid;

[0036] Step 3: Apply zinc-doped indium liquid on the inner surface of the target material, and apply zinc-doped indium liquid on the outer surface of the back tube, sleeve the target material on the back tube so that there is a gap between the target material and the back tube, and fix the target material and the back tube by binding tooling;

[0037] Step 4: Casting the zinc-doped indium liquid into the gap, so that the zinc-doped indium liquid fills the gap to form a binding layer;

[0038] Step 5: Cooling the target, backing tube and binding layer;

[0039] By doping zinc into the indium liquid, the addition of zinc turns the indium into an alloy indium doped with zinc. Indium containing zinc has better fluidity in liquid state than pure indium. When the zinc-doped indium liquid is cast in the gap between the target material and the back tube, the flow resistance of the zinc-doped indium liquid is reduced, which can facilitate the discharge of gas in the gap between the target material and the back tube, and the exhaust is smoother, so as to reduce the situation of the gap between the target material and the back tube, and can improve the binding and bonding rate of the target material and the back tube. During the magnetron sputtering process, the heat transfer efficiency of the target material is improved, and heat can be transferred evenly, which can reduce the problem of cracking of the target material, thereby improving the service life of the ITO target material.

[0040] It should be noted that the target material and the back tube are both cylindrical structures, the inner diameter of the target material is larger than the outer diameter of the back tube, the target material and the back tube are coaxially arranged, and the target material is sleeved on the back tube, and the inner surface of the target material and the outer surface of the back tube are spaced apart to form a gap, which will not be repeated here.

[0041] In some embodiments of the present invention, in step three, before applying zinc-doped indium liquid to the inner surface of the target material and the outer surface of the back tube, the target material and the back tube are heated so that the temperature of the target material and the back tube is greater than 180°C and less than 230°C, and the temperature is kept for 60 to 150 minutes, which can prevent the zinc-doped indium liquid from pre-cooling and solidifying, so that the zinc-doped indium liquid applied to the inner surface of the target material and the outer surface of the back tube can be fully mixed with the zinc-doped indium liquid subsequently filled in the gap, thereby improving the binding and bonding rate between the target material and the back tube.

[0042] Specifically, the melting point of pure indium is 156.51°C, and the boiling point of indium is 2060°C. The target material and the back tube are preheated so that the temperature of the target material and the back tube is greater than 180°C and less than 230°C. At this time, the temperature of the target material and the back tube is greater than the melting point of indium and less than the boiling point of indium. When the zinc-doped indium liquid is coated on the inner surface of the target material or the outer surface of the back tube, the zinc-doped indium liquid will not solidify, so that the zinc-doped indium liquid coated on the inner surface of the target material and the outer surface of the back tube can be fully mixed with the zinc-doped indium liquid subsequently filled in the gap, thereby improving the binding and bonding rate between the target material and the back tube.

[0043] In some embodiments of the present invention, zinc-doped indium liquid is coated on the inner surface of the target material and the outer surface of the back tube by ultrasonic coating equipment. On the one hand, the coating efficiency of the target material and the back tube can be improved. On the other hand, it can ensure that each position of the inner surface of the target material and the outer surface of the back tube can be coated with zinc-doped indium liquid, which can improve the binding and bonding rate between the target material and the back tube.

[0044] Specifically, zinc-doped indium liquid is coated on the inner surface of the target material and the outer surface of the back tube, and the target material and the back tube are respectively installed in the coating chamber of the ultrasonic coating equipment. The ultrasonic coating equipment uses ultrasonic waves to repeatedly vibrate and infiltrate indium, so that the inner surface of the target material and the outer surface of the back tube can achieve a surface metallization effect, which can improve the binding and bonding rate between the target material and the back tube.

[0045] In some embodiments of the present invention, after zinc-doped indium liquid is applied to the inner surface of the target material and the outer surface of the back tube, the back tube and the target material are arranged upright, and the target material is sleeved on the back tube, and then the bottom of the back tube and the bottom of the target material are sealed. In this way, when casting zinc-doped indium liquid, the zinc-doped indium liquid flows from the top of the gap to the bottom of the gap under the action of its own gravity, and the gas in the gap is gradually discharged from the top plate of the gap. There is no need to set up an additional power mechanism to drive the flow of zinc-doped indium liquid, which can improve the production efficiency of ITO targets.

[0046] In some embodiments of the present invention, in the zinc-doped indium liquid, the mass composition of zinc is 0.001% to 0.00015%, which can not only improve the fluidity of the zinc-doped indium liquid, but also avoid excessive drop in the melting point of indium, so as to prevent the cooled zinc-doped indium from melting in a high temperature environment, and avoid the problem of desoldering between the target material and the back tube.

[0047] Specifically, if the mass composition of zinc is less than 0.001%, the zinc content is too low, and the fluidity of the zinc-doped indium liquid is not obvious enough. When the zinc-doped indium liquid is cooled, there is a gap between the zinc-doped indium and the inner surface of the target material or the outer surface of the back tube, resulting in a decrease in the binding and bonding rate of the target material and the back tube, uneven heat dissipation of the target material, and easy cracking; if the mass composition of zinc is greater than 0.00015%, the melting point of indium will drop significantly, and the zinc-doped indium after cooling will easily melt in a high temperature environment, and the target material and the back tube will easily desolder. By controlling the mass composition of zinc to 0.001% to 0.00015%, the fluidity of the zinc-doped indium liquid can be improved, and the melting point of indium can be avoided from dropping too much, so as to prevent the zinc-doped indium from melting in a high temperature environment after cooling, and the problem of desoldering between the target material and the back tube can be avoided.

[0048] In some embodiments of the present invention, in step three, the heating rate is 0.5-0.8° C. / min, which can increase the preheating speed of the target material and the backing tube.

[0049] In some embodiments of the present invention, during the process of filling the zinc-doped indium liquid, the temperature of the inner surface of the target material and the outer surface of the back tube is controlled to be 157-200°C, which can avoid the situation where the inner surface of the target material and the outer surface of the back tube are lower than the melting point of indium, so that the zinc-doped indium liquid on the inner surface of the target material and the outer surface of the back tube can be fully mixed with the zinc-doped indium liquid filled in the gap.

[0050] In some embodiments of the present invention, in step five, the cooling rate is 0.3-0.8°C / min. When the temperature of the target material and the backing tube is cooled to room temperature, the binding tooling is disassembled, and the surface of the target blank and the backing plate are cleaned to obtain a bound ITO target material.

[0051] Table 1. Comparison of the bonding rate and maximum defect area of ​​ITO targets with different binding materials

[0052]

[0053] It can be seen from Table 1 that, compared with the undoped pure indium liquid and the zinc-doped indium liquid, the zinc-doped indium liquid has an increased ITO target bonding rate and a decreased maximum binding defect area. The zinc-doped indium liquid can improve the fluidity of the indium liquid in the binding layer, so that the gas in the gap between the back tube and the target is discharged more quickly, reducing the occurrence of void defects in the gap between the back tube and the target, and can effectively improve the binding effect between the back tube and the target, thereby reducing the occurrence of target cracking during magnetron sputtering.

[0054] According to the second aspect of the present invention, the ITO target material includes a target material, a back tube and a binding layer. The target material is sleeved on the back tube, the binding layer is arranged between the target material and the back tube, and the binding layer fills the gap between the target material and the back tube. The binding layer is composed of indium and zinc, which reduces the presence of gaps between the target material and the back tube, and can improve the binding and bonding rate between the target material and the back tube. During magnetron sputtering, the heat transfer efficiency of the target material is improved, and heat can be transferred evenly, which can reduce the problem of cracking of the target material, thereby improving the service life of the ITO target material.

[0055] Specifically, by doping zinc in the binding layer, the fluidity of the binding layer is enhanced, the gap between the target material and the back tube is reduced, and the binding bonding rate between the target material and the back tube can be improved. During the magnetron sputtering process, the heat transfer efficiency of the target material is improved, and heat can be transferred evenly, which can reduce the problem of cracking of the target material, thereby increasing the service life of the ITO target material.

[0056] The technical features of the above-described embodiments may be arbitrarily combined. To make the description concise, not all possible combinations of the technical features in the above-described embodiments are described. However, as long as there is no contradiction in the combination of these technical features, they should be considered to be within the scope of this specification.

[0057] The present embodiment is described in detail above in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, but the present invention is not limited to the above embodiment, and various changes can be made within the knowledge scope of ordinary technicians in the technical field without departing from the present purpose.

Claims

1. A method for binding ITO targets, It is characterized in that include: Step 1: Obtain indium block, target material and backing tube; Step 2: heating pure indium to a molten state to form an indium liquid, and doping zinc into the indium liquid; Step 3: Apply zinc-doped indium liquid on the inner surface of the target material, and apply zinc-doped indium liquid on the outer surface of the back tube, sleeve the target material on the back tube so that there is a gap between the target material and the back tube, and fix the target material and the back tube by binding tooling; Step 4: casting the zinc-doped indium liquid into the gap, so that the zinc-doped indium liquid fills the gap to form a binding layer; Step five: Cooling the target material, the back tube and the binding layer.

2. The method for binding an ITO target according to claim 1, It is characterized in that In step three, before applying zinc-doped indium liquid to the inner surface of the target and the outer surface of the back tube, the target and the back tube are heated so that the temperature of the target and the back tube is greater than 180° C. and less than 230° C., and the temperature is kept for 60 to 150 minutes.

3. The method for binding an ITO target according to claim 1, It is characterized in that The inner surface of the target material and the outer surface of the back tube are coated with zinc-doped indium liquid by ultrasonic coating equipment.

4. The method for binding an ITO target according to claim 3, It is characterized in that After the inner surface of the target material and the outer surface of the back tube are coated with zinc-doped indium liquid, the back tube and the target material are vertically arranged, and the target material is sleeved on the back tube, and then the bottom of the back tube and the bottom of the target material are sealed.

5. The method for binding an ITO target according to claim 1, It is characterized in that In the zinc-doped indium liquid, the mass content of zinc is 0.001% to 0.00015%.

6. The method for binding an ITO target according to claim 1, It is characterized in that In step three, the heating rate is 0.5-0.8°C / min.

7. The method for binding an ITO target according to claim 1, It is characterized in that During the process of filling the zinc-doped indium liquid, the temperature of the inner surface of the target material and the outer surface of the back tube is controlled to be 157-200°C.

8. The method for binding an ITO target according to claim 1, It is characterized in that In step five, the cooling rate is 0.3-0.8°C / min. When the temperature of the target material and the back tube is cooled to room temperature, the binding tool is disassembled to obtain the bound ITO target material.

9. An ITO target material, It is characterized in that It comprises a target material, a back tube and a binding layer, wherein the target material is sleeved on the back tube, the binding layer is arranged between the target material and the back tube, and the binding layer fills the gap between the target material and the back tube, wherein the binding layer is composed of indium and zinc.

10. The ITO target material according to claim 9, It is characterized in that, In the binding layer, the mass composition of zinc is 0.001% to 0.00015%.

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