Making plasma in sputtering involves several key steps. Here’s a detailed breakdown to help you understand the process better.
11 Steps to Understand the Process of Making Plasma in Sputtering
Step 1: Setting Up the Vacuum Chamber
The sputtering process begins with a vacuum chamber. This chamber contains the target material, substrate, and RF electrodes.
Step 2: Introducing the Sputtering Gas
An inert gas like argon or xenon is directed into the chamber. These gases are chosen because they do not react with the target material or other process gases.
Step 3: Applying High Voltage
High voltage is applied between the cathode and the anode. The cathode is located directly behind the sputtering target, and the anode is connected to the chamber as electrical ground.
Step 4: Accelerating Electrons
Electrons present in the sputtering gas are accelerated away from the cathode. This causes collisions with nearby atoms of the sputtering gas.
Step 5: Ionization Through Collisions
These collisions result in an electrostatic repulsion. This knocks off electrons from the sputtering gas atoms, causing ionization.
Step 6: Accelerating Positive Ions
The positive sputtering gas ions are then accelerated towards the negatively charged cathode. This leads to high-energy collisions with the surface of the target.
Step 7: Ejecting Target Atoms
Each collision can cause atoms at the surface of the target to be ejected into the vacuum environment. These atoms have enough kinetic energy to reach the surface of the substrate.
Step 8: Depositing the Film
The ejected target atoms travel and deposit on the substrate as a film. This forms the desired coating.
Step 9: Increasing Deposition Rates
To increase the deposition rates, high molecular weight gases like argon or xenon are typically chosen as the sputtering gas. For reactive sputtering, gases like oxygen or nitrogen can be introduced during film growth.
Step 10: Creating Plasma at High Pressure
The plasma is created at relatively high pressures (10-1 to 10-3 mbar). It’s important to start from a lower pressure before introducing argon to avoid contamination due to residual gases.
Step 11: Varying Target Shape and Material
The shape and material of the sputtering target can be varied to create different types of thin layers and alloys during a single run.
In summary, plasma in sputtering is created by ionizing a sputtering gas, typically an inert gas like argon, through collisions with high-energy electrons. These ions then bombard the target material, causing atoms to be ejected and deposited onto the substrate as a thin film.
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