What kind of material can be the target of sputtering process?
The sputter process has almost no restrictions in target materials, ranging from pure metals to semiconductors and isolators. Deposition can be carried out in either non-reactive (inert gas only) or reactive (inert and reactive gas) discharges with single- or multi-elemental targets.
How are sputtering targets made?
The multielemental alloy sputtering targets can be easily made by arc-melting or radio-frequency melting of a mixture of metals in a vacuum or inert-gas atmosphere.
What are silicon sputtering targets?
Sputtering targets are used to produce low-radiation coated glass – also known as Low-E glass – which is commonly used in building construction because of its ability to save energy, control light, and for aesthetics.
What is sputtering in semiconductor?
Sputtering is a thin-film manufacturing process widely used across many industries including semiconductor processing, precision optics, and surface finishing. A plasma is created by ionizing a sputtering gas, usually an inert gas such as argon or xenon.
What is sputtering and its types?
Sputtering is a physical process in which atoms in a solid-state (target) are released and pass into the gas phase by bombardment with energetic ions (mainly noble gas ions). Sputtering is usually understood as the sputter deposition, a high vacuum-based coating technique belonging to the group of PVD processes.
Where do sputtering takes place?
In physics, sputtering is a phenomenon in which microscopic particles of a solid material are ejected from its surface, after the material is itself bombarded by energetic particles of a plasma or gas. It occurs naturally in outer space, and can be an unwelcome source of wear in precision components.
What is a semiconductor target?
The sputtering target is the target material of high-speed charged particle bombardment. The sputtering target material is the core of semiconductor wafer manufacturing, and the chip has very high requirements for sputtering target material, which requires high purity of target material, generally over 99.999%.
What is a sputtering chamber?
Sputtering is a plasma based deposition process in which energetic ions are accelerated towards a target. In a typical sputtering deposition process, a chamber is first evacuated to high vacuum to minimize the partial pressures of all background gases and potential contaminants.
What is a sputtering tool?
A magnetron sputtering source is a tool to deposit thin film that mounts to a vacuum chamber by means of either flanges or feedthroughs and consists of a water cooled cathode/target holder with an embedded magnet array and appropriate grounded shielding.
What are the steps involved in the sputtering process?
Basically the steps of sputtering process are the following: (i) the neutral gas is ionized by a external power supply, producing a glow discharge or plasma; (ii) a source (the cathode, also called the target) is bombarded in high vacuum by gas ions due to the potential drop acceleration in the cathode sheath; (iii) …
What are the advantages of sputtering?
Like other physical vapor deposition techniques, ion beam sputtering provides advantages such as deposition rate, uniformity, composition, thickness control, adhesion, and material properties.
What is sputtering in semiconductor industry?
The phenomenon of Sputtering is employed in the semiconductor industry for depositing thin films of different constituents on silicon wafers. The process is also employed in optical applications by depositing a thin layer on glass.
Why do we use cu for sputtering?
We use 6N (99.9999%) Cu manufactured at the Isohara Works as the raw material for semiconductor sputtering targets, and a wealth of knowledge about melting with additive metals is incorporated into the processes. Excellent affinity for mass production lets us rapidly launch manufacturing for leading-edge semiconductors using Cu alloy.
What type of sputtering equipment is used for wafer size?
All sputtering equipment can be used for any wafer size. Particle suppression is especially effective at reducing O, S, and P impurities. Exhaustive efforts are made to minimize particle occurrence during sputtering.
What is the voltage of a sputtering diode?
DC diode sputtering With a DC voltage = 500 – 1000 V, an argon low-pressure plasma is ignited between a target and a substrate. Positive argon ions precipitate atoms out of the target, which then migrates to the substrate and condenses there.