By Ravi Chawla

MOTIVATION

Film growth/deposition

Deposition
Deposition systems may be divided into two groups:
a) Chemical Vapor Deposition (CVD) systems Which rely on the chemical reaction of the constituents of a vapor phase at the substrate surface to deposit a solid film on this surface. b) Physical Vapor Deposition (PVD) systems Which directly deposit the source material onto a given substrate in a line-of-site impingement type deposition.

Physical Vapor Deposition (PVD)

The physical vapor deposition technique is based on the formation of

vapor of the material to be deposited as a thin film. The material in solid form is either heated until evaporation (thermal evaporation) or sputtered by ions (sputtering). In the last case, ions are generated by a plasma discharge usually within an inert gas (argon). It is also possible to bombard the sample with an ion beam from an external ion source. This allows to vary the energy and intensity of ions reaching the target surface.

b) Physical Vapor Deposition (PVD) systems

In these types of thin film deposition systems, the source

materials to be deposited take on a variety of forms:

Solid Liquid Vapor

In the case of PVD systems, the materials to be deposited

are physically deposited using a variety of methods including:

Thermal Evaporation Sputtering Etc. (Laser Ablation, Molecular Beam Epitaxy)

a) Physical Vapor Deposition (PVD) systems continued

The range of materials that may be deposited using these

methods include:

Metals such as:

Al Cu Au Ag etc.

Compound & hard materials such as:

Cr TiN CrN AlCuSi etc.

Physical Vapor Deposition

Thermal Evaporation Resistive Inductive

Sputtering DC RF Magnetron (RF or DC) Reactive Sputtering

Electron Beam

THERMAL EVAPORATION
Thermal evaporation, using different types of heat sources, was the earliest method used for achieving supersaturated vapor. Preparation of nanoparticles from supersaturated vapor produced by thermal evaporation was first established in 1930 to prepare nanoparticles of elements.

Oxides were later prepared by the same method by introducing oxygen to the metal vapor.

Thermal Evaporation - General

The material to be deposited is placed in a crucible within a high-vacuum chamber. After the chamber is pumped down, the source is heated via (typically) resistive or e-beam heating. The material is heated to its boiling point such that it sublimates onto all exposed surfaces in the vacuum chamber. The amount of material deposited is controlled via a thickness monitor which is placed within the deposition chamber. The source material must be of high purity. Vacuum levels are on the order of 10-5 to 10-7 Torr. Thermal Evaporation e-Beam

Thermal Evaporation Resistive Heating

Fig: Example of an inductively heated crucible used to create moderately charged temperatures

Single Source Evaporation : Method of evaporating multicomponent film

Thermal Evaporation - drawbacks

Resistive heating is the simplest method of evaporating metals such as Al or Au, but it is also the dirtiest in that contaminants which find their way onto the filament tend to be evaporated along with the metal. The purity issue can be addressed via e-beam evaporation since the cooled, non-molte high-purity material to be deposited acts as a crucible during the process (as seen on one of the schematic previously ). In the case of resistive heating, temperature uniformity across the filament is difficult to control and therefore, evaporation uniformity onto the substrates may be a problem. This is not an issue with e-beam evaporation E-beam evaporation may cause surface damage due to ionizing radiation and/or X-rays (@ voltages above 10kV, the incident electron beam will give rise to X-ray emission).

SPUTTERING

Sputtering: General

The Mechanism of Sputtering

Sputtering Deposition

Sputtering

The substrate is placed in a vacuum chamber with the source material, named a target, and an inert gas (such as argon) is introduced at low pressure. A gas plasma is struck using an RF power source, causing the gas to become ionized. The ions are accelerated towards the surface of the target, causing atoms of the source material to break off from the target in vapor form and condense on all surfaces including the substrate.

Sputtering principle of operation

A solid slab (ie., target) of the material to be deposited is placed in a vacuum chamber along with the substrate on which the deposition is to take place. The target is grounded. Argon gas is introduced into the chamber and ionized to a positive charge. The Ar ions bombard the target and cause the target atoms to scatter, with some of them landing on the substrate. The plasma is composed of the Ar atoms, Ar ions, the sputtered material, gas atoms and electrons generated by the sputtering process. Allows the deposition of a large assortment of materials on any type of substrate

Sputtering Process

Physical vapor deposition (PVD): Sputtering

Momentum transfer

W= kV i PTd
-V working voltage - i discharge current - d, anode-cathode distance - PT, gas pressure - k proportionality constant

The sputter yield depends on: (a) the energy of the incident ions; (b) the masses of the ions and target atoms; (c) the binding energy of atoms in the solid and (d) the incident angle of ions.

Reactive Sputtering
Sputtering metallic target in the presence of a reactive gas mixed with inert gas (Ar)
A mixture of inert +reactive gases used for sputtering

oxides Al2O3, SiO2, Ta2O5 (O2) nitrides TaN, TiN, Si3N4 (N2, NH3) carbides TiC, WC, SiC (CH4, C2H4, C3H8)

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Reactive Sputtering (Cont.)

chemical reaction takes place on substrate and target can poison target if chemical reactions are faster than

sputter rate adjust reactive gas flow to get good stoichiometry without incorporating excess gas into film

Reactive Magnetron Sputtering Zinc Oxide Thin films

Zinc oxide is one of the most interesting semiconductors It has been investigated extensively because of its interesting electrical, optical and piezoelectric properties

Reactive sputtering is the best technique for Zinc Oxide deposition.

Process Parameters
The physical properties of ZnO films are influenced not only by

the deposition techniques, but also by process parameters.

The film deposited on high temperature substrate will show finer uniform grains and smoother surface

Process Parameters
Quality of the film dependents on deposition conditions, such as substrate temperature, deposition power, deposition pressure and argonoxygen flow.

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Conclusion
Sputter deposition is a widely used technique for depositing

thin metal layers on semiconductor wafers.

The range of applications of sputtering and the variations of the

basic process, is extremely wide.

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Sputtering advantages/disadvantages

Thank You!