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atc-1800

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Table of Contents

ATC Sputtering System 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 me
  • Never transfer a hot sample holder (cold is, say, 150 degrees 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 not stick lamps with magnets on the painted frame of the system

Do's

  • write the logbook

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. Clean the substrates with demi-water (if necessary), then acetone and finally IPA
  3. Mount the substrates on the sample holder.
  4. Check if the valve between the chamber and the loadlock is closed before venting the loadlock
  5. Switch off the loadlock pumpgroup
  6. When the top pops up close venting N2 valve
  7. Put the sample holder in the loadlock with the alignment slit towards the right viewport. Always wear powderfree gloves!
  8. 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 loadlock valve
  3. Slide the magnetic drive slowly until the end stop
  4. Rotate the propeller to align it with the slits in the sample holder
  5. Lower the sample heating block carefully: be very careful not to bend the transfer arm
  6. Rotate the propeller clockwise manually, DO NOT USE FORCE
  7. Pull the sampleholder up using the joystick, rotate to see if it's levelled
  8. Raise the sample heating block + sampleholder all the way up
  9. Switch on rotation (if rotation speed>40, higher risk of dropping the sample holder during heating)
  10. Slide back the magnetic drive slowly until the end stop
  11. Close the loadlock valve

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. Create a shutter program if desired
  4. Open the gases you need on the touch screen
  5. Set the gasflows
  6. Switch to the capacitance gauge (CH2)
  7. Switch the VAT-valve to pressure mode
  8. Presputter at the sputtering current
  9. If RF/bias is needed, switch off the gun, set the pressure to 25 ubar, ignite the bias, set the pressure to the process value, adjust RF matching and restart the gun
  10. Run the shutter program or operate the shutters manually
  11. When done, switch off the gun and bias immediately
  12. Switch off the heater and gases (probably you also want to do this immediately)
  13. Open VAT-valve
  14. Switch off rotation
  15. When the sample heating block has cooled, transfer your sample to loadlock

Removing the sample

  1. Transfer the sample out (see transfer)
  2. Vent the loadlock as described above in order to remove your samples
  3. Check whether the sample holder is really cold
  4. Remove the sampleholder and pump down the loadlock as described above
  5. Fill out the logbook with all required information.

Leaving the system

Common problems and tips&tricks

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-1800.1675421707.txt.gz · Last modified: 2023/02/03 10:55 by scholma
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