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Physical Vapor Deposition (PVD)
PVD methods:
Evaporation condensation of metal vapor in
high vacuum to deposit a thin film on a wafer; unable to
cover severe topology (poor step coverage) which is
beneficial when doingg lift-off ppatterning;
g also hard to
deposit alloys due to possible difference in melting
points.
Sputtering - use of plasma and acceleration of
ions towards a target; material sputtered
sputtered from the
target and deposited on the wafer; extensively used in Si
technology;
gy; moderate stepp coverage.
g
Evaporation Process:
*Chamber under high vacuum (low pressure and long mfp)
*metal ppieces pplaced in crucible ((charge)
g ) and heated to Tm
*substrates placed above the crucible, and
*metal deposits on the substrates.
Step Coverage
AR = step height
step diameter
Figure 12.7 Resistive evaporator sources. (A) Simple sources including heating
the charge itself and using a coil of refractory metal heater coil and a charge rod.
(B) More standard thermal sources including a dimpled boat in resistive media.
Evaporation
Advantages: Simple process, relatively
inexpensive, high purity films can be
deposited.
Disadvantages: difficult to evaporate alloys
due to different melting points, line of
sight deposition results in poor surface
coverage unless
l th
there is
i rotation
t ti off the
th
samples; deposition of refractory materials
is a problem due to high temperatures
required.
Evaporation of Alloys
Sputtering:
Bombard the target (cathode) with energetic ions, usually Ar+, in a
plasma. Target material, not the wafers, must be placed on the electrode
with maximum ion flux.
*Chamber base pressure - high
vacuum,
*Argon
Argon flows into chamber
raising pressure to mTorr range,
*power supplied to electrodes,
*target material deposits on the
wafers.
Allows deposition of refractory
metals, alloys, dielectrics if an RF
y
is used.
system
When an energetic ion strikes the surface of a material -1) Ions with low energies may bounce of the surface
2) Ions may adsorb to the surface, giving up its energy to
phonons (heat)
3) Ion
I penetrates
t t into
i t material,
t i l depositing
d
iti energy deep
d
into
i t the
th
substrate
Film morphology
Zone model (Zones 1, 2, 3, T) indicates the films final
characteristics based on the substrate temperature and ion energy;
T-region is characterized by very small grains
Zone1-low T, low ion energy
yields amorphous, porous
materials; Raise T or lower P
moves to T-zone
Zone2-Increase T and/or
increase ion energy will
increase grain size - tall
columnar grains
Zone3-Increase T, film has
large 33-D
D grains surface may
be rough and hazy
Step Coverage
Application of substrate heat will dramatically improve the step
coverage due to surface diffusion; High AR can be a problem
otherwise.
Figure 12.25 The Endura system by Applied Materials uses a number of PVD or CVD chambers
fed by a central robot. For conventional and IMP sputtering, targets are hinged to open upward. Two
open chambers are shown, along with the load lock (from Applied Materials).
Reactive sputtering: use of reactive gases (O2, CH4, NH3, N2) rather
than inert ggases to sputter
p
oxides,, carbide,, nitrides.
Example below is for TiN
Figure 12.28 Resistivity and composition of reactively sputtered TiN as a function of the N2
flow in the sputtering chamber (after Tsai, Fair, and Hodul, reprinted by permission, The
Electrochemical Society, and Molarius and Orpana, reprinted by permission, Kluwer
Academic Publishing).
Sputtering
Advantages:
g Moderatelyy ggood step
p coverage;
g ; preferred
p
technique for deposition of alloys, can sputter a wide variety of
materials
Disadvantages: may have some Argon incorporation in the film;
could have some damage to substrate although not as much as in
e-beam evaporation