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atc-1800

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ATC Sputtering System manual

Link to the manual

Description

The ATC-1800 sputtering system is feature-rich 4-magnetron system with a large deposition pressure range, 10e-8 mbar range background pressure, substrate heating, substrate RF bias, variable working distance, in-situ gun tilt on all sources, substrate rotation and multi-channel gas blending. The gas inlets are connected to both the chamber and the sources. The system has a loadlock for high throughput and a vacuum chamber that is easily accessible for all non-standard work.

DONT's

  • Never make a modification to the system without consulting a technician
  • Never transfer a hot sample holder (cold is, say, 50 °C)
  • Never hot-switch the switchbox (switch off power first!)
  • Never exceed 50W RF power for substrate bias
  • Never transfer a sample without checking that BOTH loadlock and chamber are at vacuum (<1e-6 mbar)
  • Never sputter without a sample holder in place

Do's

  • write the logbook
  • keep an eye on changing voltage to indicate you sputtered through the target

Before you start

Check the logbook and reservation system to see if you are interfering with someone else. Fill in your name, date and time in the logbook before you start.

USING THE SYSTEM

Venting the loadlock and loading the substrates

  1. Wear powder free gloves!
  2. Check if the gate valve between the chamber and the loadlock is closed before venting the loadlock
  3. Vent loadlock to get the sample holder
    1. Switch off the loadlock pumpgroup
    2. In small steps introduce N2 in the loadlock
  4. Mount the substrates on the sample holder with silverpaint, leave paint to dry at least 5min
  5. Put the sample holder in the loadlock with the alignment slit towards the right viewport.
  6. Close the loadlock

Pumping down the loadlock

  1. Switch on the loadlock pumpgroup
  2. Pump until the pressure in the loadlock is <10-6 mbar

Transfer

  1. Check whether both chamber and loadlock are at vacuum
  2. Open the gate valve
  3. make sure sample stage is completely up
  4. Slide the magnetic drive slowly until the end stop
  5. Rotate the propeller to align it with the slits in the sample holder
  6. Lower the sample stage carefully: be very careful not to bend the transfer arm
  7. Rotate the propeller clockwise manually, DO NOT USE FORCE
  8. Pull the sample stage up one cm using the joystick, rotate to see if it's levelled
  9. Raise the sample stage all the way up
  10. Switch on rotation (if rotation speed>40, higher risk of dropping the sample holder during heating)
  11. Slide back the magnetic drive slowly until the end stop
  12. Close the gate valve
  13. Lower sample stage fully (or to desired working distance)

Sputtering

  1. Set the substrate temperature to the desired value, let the heater bake until the desired pressure/Temperature is reached
  2. Set the switchbox to the desired gun
  3. Open the gases you need on the touch screen
  4. Set the gasflows
  5. Switch the VAT-valve to pressure mode (typical setpoint is 5mTorr)
  6. close shutters of chamber before sputtering
  7. set the settings on the power supply (to not go over ~500V/100W)
  8. press start on power supply to ignite plasma
  9. Presputter with shutter closed
  10. If RF/bias is needed, switch off the gun, set the pressure to 25 µbar, ignite the bias, set the pressure to the process value, adjust RF matching and restart the gun
  11. Open shutter and start timer
  12. When done, switch off the gun and bias immediately
  13. Switch off the heater and gases (probably you also want to do this immediately)
  14. Open VAT-valve fully
  15. Switch off rotation
  16. When the sample stage has cooled to <50°C, transfer your sample to loadlock

Removing the sample

  1. Move sample stage fully up
  2. Open gate valve
  3. Move transfer arm to end stop
  4. lower sample stage and drop sample holder on transfer arm
  5. Put sample stage fully up
  6. move transfer arm to the loadlock
  7. close gate valve
  8. Vent the loadlock as described above in order to remove your samples
  9. Check whether the sample holder is really cold
  10. Remove the samples from the sample holder, put sample holder back and pump down the loadlock as described above
  11. Fill out the logbook with all required information.

Leaving the system

Common problems and tips&tricks

  • power supply is off:
    • not all safety interlocks are met (cooling water flow or pressure)
  • flickering, unstable plasma
    • optimize process conditions
    • to thick backing plate
  • cannot ignite plasma
    • to thick backing plate
    • optimize process conditions
    • faulty power supply
    • target not conducting

Deposition rates

Source tilt angle, substrate angle and source-substrate distance are process parameters that should be mentioned here!

Current configuration:

Material Date Sample ID Process parameters Measured with Result Rate
Fe 20161222 on Si 5mTorr, 400mA, 7 min XRR 41 nm 5.8nm/min
Fe 20161107 MgO/03 5mTorr, 200mA X-ray + profilometer, 20 min, 10 min 2 thicknesses: 51, 25nm 2.52 nm/min
Nd20161019+20MgO/021,225mTorr, 30mA, 25 & 50 minXRR tough fit, profilometer25 & 50 nm approx 1nm/min
W 20161011+12 MgO/011,012 5 mTorr, 100mA, 25min, 37.5min XRR 1.48nm/min

Older rates

Material Date Sample ID Process parameters Measured with Result Rate
Co 20160111 Co 5 mTorr, 200 mA, 22 min X-ray 70.6 nm 3.21/min
Ag 20150402 Ag_cal 5 mTorr, 100 mA, 5 min X-ray 39.0 nm 7.8 nm/min
Co 20150402 Co_cal 5 mTorr, 200 mA, 15min X-ray 27.5 nm 1.83 nm/min
Cu 20150402 Cu_cal 5 mTorr, 100 mA, 10 min X-ray 31.1 nm 3.11 nm/min
Nb 20150402 Nb_cal 5 mTorr, 300 mA, 10 min X-ray 48.0 nm 4.80 nm/min
Ag 20131104 Ag10min 5 mTorr, 100 mA, 10 min, 4 mm tilt X-ray 82.8 nm 8.28 nm/min
Co 20130911 Co_cal 5 mTorr, 100 mA, 15 min X-ray 11.48 nm 0.765 nm/min
Cr 20130911 Cr_cal 5 mTorr, 100 mA, 15 min X-ray 14.79 nm 0.985 nm/min
Cu 20130911 Cu_cal 5 mTorr, 400 mA, 3 min, 4 mm tilt X-ray 51.1 nm 17.03 nm/min
Cu 20131104 Cu3min 5 mTorr, 400 mA, 3 min, 4 mm tilt X-ray 49.8 nm 16.6 nm/min
Nb 20131104 Nb3min 5 mTorr, 300 mA, 3 min, 4 mm tilt X-ray 14.8 nm 4.93 nm/min
Pd 20131212 Pd 5 mTorr, 100 mA, 4 min, 4 mm tilt X-ray ? 4.92 nm/min
Py 20130911 Py_cal 5 mTorr, 400 mA, 3 min, 4 mm tilt X-ray 21.9 nm 7.296 nm/min
Py 20130911 Py_cal_3mT 3 mTorr, 400 mA, 3 min, 4 mm tilt X-ray 24.9 nm 8.3 nm/min
Py 20131104 Py3min_holder_a 3 mTorr, 400 mA, 3 min, 4 mm tilt X-ray 26.3 nm 8.7 nm/min
Py 20131104 Py3min_holder_b 3 mTorr, 400 mA, 3 min, 4 mm tilt X-ray 26.2 nm 8.7 nm/min
Py 20131112 Py1mTorr_holder 1 mTorr, 350 mA, 3 min, 4 mm tilt X-ray 30.4 nm 10.13 nm/min
Py 20131112 Py2mTorr_holder 2 mTorr, 350 mA, 3 min, 4 mm tilt X-ray 27.3 nm 9.1 nm/min
Py 20131112 Py4mTorr_holder 4 mTorr, 400 mA, 3 min, 4 mm tilt X-ray 22.1 nm 7.4 nm/min
Py 20131212 Py3mTorr_holder 3 mTorr, 400 mA, 3 min, 4 mm tilt X-ray 28.7 nm 8.1 nm/min
Py 20131212 Py3mTorr 3 mTorr, 400 mA, 3 min, 4 mm tilt X-ray 26.7 nm 7.6 nm/min

Archived rates

Target Materials

The following materials are available

  • NiFe
  • Co
  • Al2O3
  • Al
  • Nb
  • Cr
  • Py
  • Cu
  • Mo
  • Fe
  • Ag
  • Ni
  • Nd
  • W

Recipes

AuFe samples

In AuFe run 200511 AuFe current was kept constant at 100mA and Au current was changed to obtain 6, 4, 3 and 1.5% samples.

Linear approx. of concentration:

Assume for both Au and AuFe 1 nm = n atoms (Fe conc. is low, atoms have similar size), Au rate is rAu and AuFe rate is rAuFe.

The rates at 100mA have been measured by x-ray, they are rAu,100 and rAuFe,100.

Au source: rAu n atoms/min. AuFe source: 0.06 rAuFe n Fe atoms/min + 0.94 rAuFe n Au atoms/min

Fe/Au = Fe (atoms/min) / Au (atoms/min) = 0.06 rAuFe n / (0.94 rAuFe n + rAu n)

AuFe current is kept at 100mA: Fe/Au = 0.06 rAuFe,100 / (0.94 rAuFe,100 + rAu)

rAu = 0.06 rAuFe,100 (Au/Fe)-0.94rAuFe,100

IAu = 100 rAu / rAu,100 mA

Flat Au films on Mica

Substrate

Mica, punched into 8 or 2.5 mm disks, freshly cleaved just before loading into ATC. Use a Cu holder for the mica, no adhesives

Pressure

20 mTorr setpoint, low -7 background

Ar Flow

24

Temperature

300deg C for deposition.

Current

200 mA for 20 minutes, then 2 minutes 45 mA

Voltage

Around 500 / 380

O2 flow

1

Heating/cooling rate

Heating: Heat up before deposition to 450 to bake out the dirt from chamber, holder & substrate. Radiative cooldown to 300 for deposition. Anneal for 1-2hrs postdeposition at 300. Cooldown radiative by switching off heat.

and

RMS roughness (and better roughness data if available)

I think a picture says more than 1000 roughness values..

Picture: stm image in air, with a lot of vibrations. Image size 740×640 nm. Shows the typical variation of terrace sizes you find on these samples.

Note 1: This recipe has been taken over (mutatis mutandis) from the attached article by kawasaki et al. Some details on the growth mechanism and origin of the triangular facets on the surface can be found in Lussem et aL, applied surface science 249 (2005) 197-202

Note 2: The parameters I used were not systematically optimized. I happened to stumble over something that worked good enough for me almost immediately. The low growth rate (high pressure/low current) of the last step is most probably important. Lower currents could be a thing to try, higher pressure is probably less useful (?). A higher growth rate for the first step might be advantageous, too (lower pressure?). Higher temperature might not be a bad idea, but going over 500 deg C is not advised, since mica starts to decompose at these temperatures.

Note 3: Film thickness has up to now not been calibrated. SEM imaging of film grown at room temperature in otherwise same process suggests around 80 nm thickness.

kawasaki-uchiki_sputter-flat-gold-mica_surf.sci.lett_1997.pdf

Cu on Al2O3

Presputter: Cu 5 min 100 mA, 25 sccm Ar, 5 mTorr, 100% rotation, 90 C (on lamp)

Sputter: Cu 60 min 400 mA, 25 sccm Ar, 5 mTorr, 100% rotation, 90 C (on lamp)

Miscellaneous

Maintenance

atc-1800.txt · Last modified: 2023/03/21 12:54 by scholma
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