THIN FILM DEPOSITION

TECHNIQUES
 THIN FILM THICK FILM

• A thin film is defined as a low- •A thick film is defined as a low-

dimensional material created
by condensing, one-by-one,
atomic/molecular/ionic
species of matter in vacuum
environment.
dimensional material created by
thinning a three dimensional
material or assembling large
clusters/aggregate grains of
atomic/molecular/ionic species.

• Thin film is a layer of material •Its thickness is in several

ranging from fractions of a micrometers.
nanometer to several
micrometers in thickness.

• Ex: sputtering, pulsed laser •Ex:screen printing etc.,

deposition, evaporation
techniques
 Thin film deposition techniques

Thin film process

Physical process Chemical process

1.Atmospheric pressure cvd

Thermal Sputtering Pulsed laser 2.Low pressure cvd
evaporation deposition 3.Molecular organic cvd
4.Plasma enhanced cvd
 Vacuum
• Ideal Vacuum
– A space totally devoid of all matter.
– Does not exist, even in outer space!
• Actual Vacuum (Partial Vacuum)
– A space containing gas at a pressure below the surrounding
atmosphere or atmospheric pressure
• <760T @ sea level with no humidity
• A vacuum provides a clean environment
– Devoid of possible contamination from other gases that may
be present from the atmosphere
– Devoid of pressure that may limit restrict a desired physical
process
 Vacuum pressures
Pressure Range Pressure/ Torr
Atmospheric pressure
760

Low Vacuum
760 to 25

Medium Vacuum
25 to 1*10^-3

High Vacuum
1*10^-3 to 1*10^-9

Ultra High Vacuum 1*10^-9 to 1*10^-12

 Plasma
• It is one of the four fundamental states of matter.
• Plasma is described as an electrically neutral medium of
positive and negative particles and also as a
quasineutral gas that exhibits a collective behaviour in
the presence of electromagnetic fields.
• When a air or gas is ionized plasma is formed with
similar conductive properties to that of metals.
• It is abundant in universe.
 Physical vapor deposition
• Physical vapor deposition (PVD) describes a
variety of vacuum deposition methods used
to deposit thin films by the condensation of a
vaporized form of the desired film material
onto various substrate surfaces (e.g., onto
silcon wafers).
 Thermal evaporation
• It is conventionally called vacuum deposition method.
• It comprises of evaporating source materials in a vacuum chamber
below 10^-6 torr and condensing the evaporated particles on the
substrate.
• Thermal evaporation classified into two types. They are
1.Resistive heating
2.Electron beam
 Resistive Heating Electron beam

•Commonly used technique for •It is used for evaporating high

deposition of thin films.
•The source materials are
evaporated by a resistively heated
filament or boat, generally made of
refractory metals such as W, Mo,
or Ta, with or without ceramic
coatings.
melting point materials which is
not done by resistive heating.
Crucibles of quartz, graphite,
alumina, beryllia, boron-nitride, or
zirconia are evaporated with this
technique.

• Used for the deposition of the electrodes because of the higher

deposition rates compared to the other PVD techniques.
• It requires higher temperature for the evaporation of the target
elements
 Sputtering
• When a solid surface is bombarded with energetic
particles such as accelerated ions, surface atoms of the
solid are scattered backward due to collisions between
the surface atoms and the energetic particles. This
phenomenon is called back-sputtering, or simply
sputtering.

Sputter yield (S)= number ejected /

number incident
 Keys to Proper Sputtering
• The right choice of ions
– The atomic weights of the ions and the target atoms be
should close.
• The right pressure for a sustainable plasma
– 10-1000 mTorr
• The right cathode voltage so that the ions have the right
energy for sputtering
– Eion > 100 eV and Vcath ~ 2-5 kV
• The right angle for high sputter yield
– 60° - 70° from normal
• The right substrate voltage and temperature for a clean
film
 Types of sputtering

• Sputtering has been classified into four types. They are

1.DC sputtering
2.RF sputtering
3.Magnetron sputtering
4.Reactive sputtering.
 DC Sputtering
• In DC sputtering, the sputtering target become the cathode of an
electrical circuit, and has a high negative voltage applied to it.
• The substrate is placed on an electrically grounded anode.
• These electrodes are housed in a vacuum chamber into which
argon gas is introduced to some specified pressure.
• The electric field accelerates the electrons, which in turn collide with
argon atoms, breaking some of them up into argon ions and more
electrons to produce the glow discharge.

DC Sputtering
Some Limitations of DC Sputtering
• The high pressures required to achieve a
plasma can degrade film quality.
• Only a small fraction of the gas is
converted to ions.
• All of this results in deposition rates that
are low (~ 100 Ǻ / min).
 Substrate Biasing
• Applying a small negative voltage to the
substrate (50 – 300 V)
• Removes physisorbed (adsorbed)
contaminants such as Oxygen
• Also, by increasing the energy of the surface
atoms enhances diffusion
– This improves adhesion, nucleation and crystal
structure.
• Other modifications to DC sputtering
(hollow cathode, triode) enhance ionization
and enable lower gas pressures.
 The Major Limitation of DC
Sputtering
• Suppose instead of a metal, we want to sputter
an insulator like quartz.
• Due to the high resistivity of the target running
an appreciable current through would require an
impossibly large voltage (~1012 V).
• The lack of a current will extinguish the plasma
and stop the process.
• Practically this limits DC sputtering to materials
of a resistivity less than 106 Ω.cm (no insulators).
 AC Plasmas
• Now recall that the effective resistance of dielectrics can
vary with the frequency of the applied current
(impedance).
• A capacitvely coupled AC plasma (like a sputteirng
system) would see a lower impedance and therefore
reasonable voltages can still sustain current through the
target.
• At low frequencies both the ions and electrons can react
to the change in voltage polarity and essentially a DC
plasma that changes sides prevails.
• Above ~ 1MHz, the heavier ions can not react to the
voltage changes while the lighter electrons can follow
them without problems.
• The higher mobility of the electrons enables them to
be more energetic and increases the plasma density.
 Target Self-Bias
• Another consequence of the
mobility disparity between the
ions and the electrons is that
the target will automatically
tend to bias itself more
negatively than the anode.
Vtarget
• This is because the highly
mobile electrons enable a t
larger electron flow through the
anode while the more
sedentary ions provide a lower
current to the cathode. Sputter here
• This asymmetry creates a
negatively biased current
through the plasma.
 RF Sputtering
• Instead of applying a DC
voltage to the cathode, apply a
voltage oscillating at radio
frequency (RF), typically
around 13.5 MHz.
• The RF peak to peak voltage is
around 1000V, electron
densities are around 109-1011
cm-3 and the chamber pressure
is 0.5 - 10 mTorr
• On the positive cycle, electrons
are attracted to the cathode,
creating a negative bias (think
of it as replenishing the
negative charge on the target
surface).
• On the negative cycle ion
bombardment continues.
 RF Sputtering Details
• By avoiding a constant negative voltage on the cathode,
ion buildup is prevented for insulating targets.
• Can operate at lower pressures while still sustaining
a plasma.
• RF plasmas tend to fill the chamber as opposed to DC
plasmas which are confined to the cathode.
• Normally both the target and substrate should sputter.
This can be overcome by making the target area small
compared to the substrate.
• While any type of film can be RF sputtered,
deposition rates are still low.
• Applying RF power is not so simple, power supplies
are expensive and additional circuitry is needed.
 Magnetron Sputtering
• Plasma generation is an inefficient
process.
– Less than 0.1% ionization rate
• Can increase chamber pressure
– Degrade film quality, lose plasma
• Solution: Use secondary electrons more
efficiently to generate plasma.
 Magnetron Sputtering
• Normally once an electron is kicked out of
the surface it travels more or less in a
straight line between collisions.
• Under the influence of the cathode-anode
voltage, it will drift towards the anode.
• If we can confine the electrons near
the cathode, their high density will
increase the plasma density and
make for more efficient sputtering.
 The Magnetron

trapped
electrons

• A series of magnets with alternating polarity are attached to the back side of
the target in a circular fashion.
• The magnets create curved magnetic field lines which confine the
secondary electrons to them.
• The highly concentrated electron and gas collides near the target
and create a denser plasma without the need for higher pressures.
• Plasma densities can be increased by two orders of magnitude.
 Practical Considerations
• A stationary magnetic field will produce
permanent regions where the plasma is
strong
• This will create erosion rings on the
• target.
This affects film uniformity and requires
• frequent replacement of the target.
To avoid this oddly shaped and rotating
magnetron rings are used.
 Reactive Sputtering
• A combination of physical and chemical deposition.
• Used to deposit compounds (oxides, nitrides).
• Add a reactive gas (oxygen, nitrogen) to the inert gas
flow.
• The reactive gas goes in to a chemical reaction with
the sputtered atoms.
• If the sputtering rate is faster than the chemical reaction
rate, then the reaction will take place on the substrate.
• Adjust gas flow to get good stochiometry (chemical
composition).
• Examples: Al2O3, AlN, TiO, TiN, SiO2
Issues with Reactive Sputtering
• As more and more reactive gas is introduced into the
system, target oxidation or nitridation can occur.
• This leads to drastically reduced sputter yields and
deposition rates.
• The oxidation/nitridation is a runaway process. Beyond a
critical gas pressure, it progresses rapidly.
• Best oxide films are obtained just below this critical point.
• One solution is to oscillate the cathode voltage like RF
sputtering but at a lower frequency (~100 KHz).
 Pulsed laser deposition
• Pulsed laser deposition (PLD) is an improved thermal process used
for the deposition of alloys and/or compounds with a controlled
chemical composition.
 Pulsed laser deposition 
• (PLD) is a thin film deposition (specifically a physical vapor deposition, PVD)
technique where a high-power pulsed laser beam is focused inside
a vacuum chamber to strike a target of the material that is to be deposited.
• This material is vaporized from the target (in a plasma plume) which
deposits it as a thin film on a substrate (such as a silicon wafer facing the
target).
• This process can occur in ultra high vacuum or in the presence of a
background gas, such as oxygen which is commonly used when
depositing oxides to fully oxygenate the deposited films.
• Pulsed laser deposition (PLD) has emerged as a relatively simple and highly
versatile technique for the growth of thin films of variety of materials
• 1 . Deposition of epitaxial, stoichiometric thin films of simple materials 2 or multi-
element complex compounds on suitable substrates 3 , multilayers 4 , nano-
particles 5 and nano-structures etc. are some of the achievements which reflect
the versatility of this technique.
 Chemical vapor deposition
• When a volatile compound of the substance to be deposited is
vaporized and the vapor is decomposed into atoms or
molecules and are reacted with other gases vapors or liquids at
the substrate surface to yield non volatile reaction products on
the substrate is called cvd.
• Most CVD processes operate in the range of a few torr to
above the atmospheric pressure of the reactants. A relatively
high temperature (near1000°C) is required for CVD processes.
• It is used to produce high purity high performance solid
materials.
 Steps in CVD

1. Transport reactants via forced convection to reaction region

2. Transport reactants via diffusion to wafer surface
3. Adsorb reactants on surface
4. Surface processes: chemical decomposition, surface migration, site
incorporation, etc.
5. Desorption from surface
6. Transport byproducts through boundary layer
7. Transport byproducts away from deposition region
 1. APCVD
• APCVD reactors operate in mass transport
limited region
• So they are designed such that equal flow of
reactants is delivered
• This ensures uniform film deposition
• This is done by placing the wafer horizontally
and then moving them under gas stream
• They are used for depositing low temperature
oxide films
• Samples are carried through the reactor on a
conveyer belt
• Reactant gases flowing through the centre of
the reactor are containing by gas curtains
formed by fast flow of nitrogen
• Advantages:
– Simple
– High deposition rate
– Low temp
• Disadvantages:
– Poor step coverage Application:
Used mainly for thin oxides
– Purity is less than LPCVD
 2. LPCVD
• The reactor consists of a quartz tube
heated by a three zone furnace
• Gas introduced from one end & pumped
out from the other end
• Wafers stand vertically, perpendicular
to the gas flow
• They are placed in a quartz holder
• It operates in a surface reaction rate
limited mode
• Therefore supply of equal flux of reactants
is not required
• Therefore geometry can be such that it
can accommodate a large no. of wafers
approx 200 wafers at a time
• Advantages:
– Excellent purity Application
– Comfortable step coverage Used for polysilicon and dielectric
•
layer deposition
Disadvantage
– High temp
– Low deposition rate
 3. PECVD
• PECVD system use an ‘RF induced’ glow discharge to transfer
energy into reactant gases
• This procedure allows the substrate to remain at a low temp than
APCVD & LPCVD
• Types:
– Parallel plate type
– Hot wall type
a) Parallel plate type
• Reaction chamber is cylinder &
constructed of Al- coated stainless steel
• There are Al plates on the top & bottom
• Samples lie on the grounded bottom
electrode
• RF is applied to the top electrode which
creates a glow discharge between 2
plates
• Gases flow radially through the discharge
• Resistance heater heat the bottom,
grounded electrode to a temp b/w 100-
400°C
• Gases are flowing from outer edges to the
center
• Advantages:
– Low temp deposition Application:
• Disadvantages Silicon dioxide
– Wafer must be loaded & unloaded Deposition on silicon
individually nitride
– Chance of contamination
b) Hot wall type
• The reaction takes place in a quartz
tube heated by a furnace
• Samples are held parallel to the gas flow
• The electrode assembly contains long
graphite or al slabs to support the wafers
• Alternating slabs are connected to
power supply to generate discharge in
the space between the electrode (long
slabs serve both as electrode &
holder)
Advantage:
Uniformity
Large no. of wafer deposition

Disadvantage:
Contamination while loading
and unloading
 4. MOCVD
MOCVD stands for Metal-
Organic Chemical Vapor Deposition. This is a
technique for depositing thin layers of atoms onto
a semiconductor wafer. Using MOCVD you can
build up many layers, each of a precisely controlled
thickness, to create a material which has specific
optical and electrical properties
Working: To produce compound
semiconductors, the chemicals are
vaporized and transported into the reactor
together with other gases. There, the critical
chemical reaction takes place that turns the
chemicals into the desired crystal (the
compound semiconductor). The process takes
place in the hot wafer .
• The heat breaks up the molecules and deposits the
desired atoms on the surface, layer by layer.
• By varying the composition of the gas, you can change the
properties of the crystal at an almost atomic scale.
• It can grow high quality semiconductor layers
Thank you