From edmyers at stanford.edu Wed Dec 9 15:07:49 2009 From: edmyers at stanford.edu (Ed Myers) Date: Wed, 09 Dec 2009 15:07:49 -0800 Subject: SNF's New Sputter System Message-ID: <6.2.5.6.2.20091209132705.04cc9b58@stanford.edu> PVD lab members, If you were present at last weeks new equipment meeting, heard rumors or viewed the new equipment slides on the wiki then you know we are in the middle of purchasing a new evaporator and sputter system. The goal is add new capability and provide more capacity in the area of PVD. Many of you may or may not know, my tenure at SNF started as an industrial lab member. The company I worked for critical process step was centered around PVD, so I understand the voids in the SNF PVD tool set. During the time I was an industrial lab member and now that I'm a staff member, I have been searching for a sputter system which will meet the lab member deposition requirements and fit in to the structure of the SNF lab. I have reviewed new sputter systems as well as used systems and have not found one I felt would meet all the requirements one can think of. To bring a sputter system in to the facility will require trade-offs. Below are the choices I have made and why. If I was purchasing a sputter system for industry or for a small private R&D lab many of my choices would be different (I am a strong believer in load locks, but not this time). Let me tell you the configuration I chose and why. 1) A batch system with no load lock: I came to the answer of a batch system based on who will be changing the targets. Talking with other NNIN sites, the approach is split. In half the systems the lab members change the targets (similar to the Innotec and Metallica) and half have the staff change the targets on a set schedule. If we chose a load lock system, the sputter will be down for half a day or so with each scheduled change. We should go through and extended initial pump down to get back to a good base pressure, but then each deposition would be on the order of a half hour per wafer. PROS: No schedule on the type of material which is available for deposition, Any material type can be deposited during your reservation slot, looking at a 4 wafer (4") batch size (or equivalent pieces), Deposition times will be comparable to the Innotec or Metallica, CONS: Higher background of water in the chamber for a batch system than a load lock system, Depositions will be limited to the scheduled materials, the more you open a chamber the more you have to worry about the cleanliness and particles. Comments: I chose the batch system, because I thought the lab member community would rather change the targets on an as use basis instead of waiting for scheduled target changes. 2) Number of cathodes: I looked at 5 months of Innotec depositions and found that all except 1 deposition was for 3 layers or less. Therefore, I chose to install 4 cathodes in to the batch system (cost considerations and to a lesser degree space). If the lab member community would prefer a load locked system, with scheduled target changes then we should add as many cathodes as possible. 3) Deposition power sources: The two vendors have slightly different arrangements. One vendor prefers AC over DC and one has added a pulsed DC power supply. The sputter system will have an RF source for sputtering dielectrics and the ability to do reactive sputtering as well as metallic depositions if chose AC, DC or pulsed DC. The systems will also be able to do co-depositions. Vendor A: 2 AC sources, 1 DC and 1 RF Vendor B: 2 DC, 1 Pulsed DC and 1 RF DC power supplies are what we have on the Gryphon, SCT and metallica. They require metallic targets, but can be used for reactive sputtering. The deposition rate for DC reactive sputtering is very low, significantly slower than the metallic depositions. The pulsed DC power supplies also require metallic targets, but can yield much higher deposition rated during reactive depositions. AC, or sometimes referred to mid-frequency power supplies acts very similar to pulsed DC processing. Both require metallic targets and yield high deposition rates for reactive sputtering processes. Both AC and DC control the target surface with negative pulses to discharge the surface and control arcing. RF sputtering is most often used for sputtering from dielectric targets. 4) Sample Pre-Sputter clean: This is critical and will be on either system. 5) Heating: Heating will be on both system, in the range of 500C. If this is not satisfactory please let me know (what range and why). 6) Cryo pumped: This also ties back in to the selection of who changes the targets. If we have many lab members changing targets, cryo pumps are more forgiving to errors. If we chose to go to a load locked system, then I would also consider switching over to a turbo pump. At the lab member meeting I asked for feedback. I am again asking for your input. Please respond to the questions below and with your thoughts. The goal is get the system on order as soon as we can, so please respond this week. Your comments will help define the configuration of the new sputter system. The number one and most important question I need help with is: Who should change the targets. The number two question: your comments as your window of opportunity is running out. Thanks for your help, Ed PS: I apologize to all of you who are qualified on all the PVD systems and received this email numerous times. From jperez at snf.stanford.edu Thu Dec 17 08:17:47 2009 From: jperez at snf.stanford.edu (Jeannie Perez) Date: Thu, 17 Dec 2009 08:17:47 -0800 Subject: Surprise for the New year at Metalica Message-ID: <4B2A59AB.3030305@snf.stanford.edu> Hello Everyone, For us Users with short arms , Jim Haydon has place the knob from the back of the bell jar to the right side of the bell jar. This knob is the one that rotates the platen from source gun to source gun. Happy Holidays, Jeannie -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: jperez.vcf Type: text/x-vcard Size: 326 bytes Desc: not available URL: