• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.24 no.7
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• pp.344-350
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• 2014

Metal films (i.e., Ti, Al and SUH310S) were prepared in a magnetron sputtering apparatus, and their cross-sectional structures were investigated using scanning electron microscopy. The apparatus used consisted of a cylindrical metal target which was electrically grounded, and two anode rings attached to the top and to the bottom of the target. A wire was placed along the center-line of the cylindrical target to provide a substrate. When the electrical potential of the substrate was varied, the metal-film formation rate depended on both the discharge voltage and the electrical potential of the substrate. As we made the magnetic field stronger, the plasma which appeared near the target collected on the plasma wall surface and thereby decreased the bias current. The bias current on the conducting wire was different from that for cation collection. The bias current decreased because the collection of cations decreased when we increased the magnetic-coil current. When the substrate was electrically isolated, the films deposited showed a slightly coarse columnar structure with thin voids between adjacent columns. In contrast, in the case of the grounded substrate, the deposited film did not show any clear columns but instead, showed a densely-packed granular structure. No peeling region was observed between the film and substrate, indicating good adhesion.

• Applied Science and Convergence Technology
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.1-4
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• 2018

A sputtering-assisted magnetic field system was successfully developed for depositing crystalline Cu thin films at room temperature. This system employs a plasma source and an ion-beam gun with two magnetic field generators, which is covered with sputtering target and the ion-beam gun, simultaneously serving as sputtering plasma and a magnetic field generator. The formation of crystalline Cu thin films at room temperature was dominated by magnetic fields, which was revealed by preliminary experiments. This system can be employed for producing crystalline metal thin films at room temperature.

• Electrical & Electronic Materials
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• v.9 no.5
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• pp.490-497
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• 1996

RF마그네트론 스파터링에 의한 $sSnO_2$ 박막을 증착한 결과 작동조건에 따라 표면에서 막손상이 발생하였는데, 이는 target에서 생성된 높은 에너지의 고속입자가 기판에서 직접 충돌로 일어나며, 마그네트론의 자계분포와도 관계된다. 또한 기판의 위치에 따라 박막의 전기적, 구조적 특성이 급격히 변하는데 본 논문은 중심자석의 세기와 RF power, 가스압력, 그리고 기판온도 등의 스파터링 작동조건을 변화시키면서 박막의 비손상을 검토하였고, 물성특성을 평가하였다. 실험결과로 부터 기판의 외축부에서 제작된 박막은 전반적으로 막손상이 없었고, 특히 target의 중심자석을 Cobalt로 설치하고 15 mTorr의 가스압력과 50 W의 RF power로 한 경우 가장 우수한 특성을 가진 박막을 얻을 수 있었다. 추가로 막손상을 방지하고자, 환원형의 masking glass를 target위에 설치하였는데, 고에너지 입자의 직접 충돌을 확실히 차단할 수 있었으며, 비저항율도 target의 부식부위 (erosion)에 대응하는 부분에서 100배 정도로 개선하였다.

• Journal of Korean Vacuum Science & Technology
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• v.3 no.2
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• pp.101-106
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• 1999

The main consideration factor to design a magnetron of the sputtering system for TFT-LCD metallization is high sheet resistance (Rs) uniformity which is provided by the high target erosion and high current efficiency. The present study has developed a rectangular magnetron for TFT-LCD to bve considered full target erosion and high film uniformity. After an aluminum-2 at.% and alloy target was installed in a magnetron source and the film was deposited on the glass of 600${\times}$720 mm, the Rs uniformity of the deposited film was measured as functions of the magnet tilt and magnet scanning configuration. And the target erosion profile was observed with the target voltage. When sputtered at 4mtorr and 10kW, the magnet tilt for the high Rs uniformity of 8.38% was 7mm. The plasma voltage at the dwell home and end for full-face target erosion, when scanned the magnetron was 120% compared to the mean voltage of the other area.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2003.07b
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• pp.880-883
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• 2003

ZnO thin films for Film Bulk Acoustic Resonator(FBAR) were prepared by FTS (Facing Target Sputtering) system. The FTS methode enable to generate high density plasma, and it has a high deposition rate at 1mTorr pressure. Therefore, the ZnO thin films were deposited on $AZO/SiO_2/Si$ substrates with oxygen gas flow rate, and the other sputtering conditions were fixed such as a sputtering current of 0.8A, a substrate temperature at room temperature. AZO bottom electrode were deposited on $SiO_2/Si$ substrate and by Zn:Al(Al:2wt%) metal target. ZnO thin film thickness and the c-axis preferred orientation of ZnO thin film were evaluated by ${\alpha}-step$ and XRD.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2014.02a
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• pp.316-316
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• 2014

Two different transparent conducting oxide (TCO) layers of Al-doped ZnO (AZO) and $WO_3$ were prepared by a rf sputtering process. Working pressure, deposition time, and target-to-substrate distance were varied for the sputtering process to improve electrical properties of the resulting layer. Thickness of the TCO layers was measured by a profile meter of ${\alpha}$-step. To evaluate the electrical conductivity, surface resistivity of the TCO layers was measured by a four-point probe technique. Decrease of the working pressure resulted in increase of deposition rate and decrease of surface resistivity of the resulting layer. Increase of the layer thickness due to increased deposition time resulted in decrease of surface resistivity of the resulting layer. The shorter the target-to-substrate distance was, the lower was the surface resistivity of the resulting layer.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.22 no.5
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• pp.425-430
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• 2009

$ZrO_2$ film was deposited by facing target sputtering (FTS) system on polyethylene naphthalate (PEN) substrate as a gas barrier layer for flexible organic light emitting devices (FOLEDs), In order to control the heat of the FTS system caused by the ion bombardment in the cathode compared with the conventional sputtering system, the process characteristics of the FTS apparatus are investigated under various sputtering conditions such as the distance between two targets ($d_{TT}$), the distance between the target and the substrate ($d_{TS}$), and the deposition time. The $ZrO_2$ film by the FTS system can reduce the damage on the films because the ion bombardment with high-energy particles like gamma-electrons, Moreover, the $ZrO_2$ film with optimized condition ($d_{TT}$=140 mm) as a function of the distance from center to edge showed a very uniform thickness below 5 % for a deposition time of 3 hours, which can improve the interface property between the anode and the plastics substrate for flexible displays, It is concluded that the $ZrO_2$ film prepared by the FTS system can be applied as a gas barrier layer or an interlayer between the anode and the plastic substrate with good properties of an uniform thickness and a low deposition-temperature.

• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers C
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• v.50 no.1
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• pp.11-16
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• 2001

CuNi alloy films are deposited by co-sputtering of dual targets (Cu and Ni, respectively). Effects of the co-sputtering conditions, such as powers applied to the targets, deposition pressures, and substrate temperatures, on the structural and electrical properties of deposited films are systematically investigated. The composition ratio of Ni/Cu is almost linearly decreased by increasing the DC power applied to the Cu target from 25.6 W to 69.7 W with the RF power applied to the Ni target unchanged(140 W). it is noted that the chamber pressure during deposition and the film thickness give rise to a change of the Ni/Cu ratio within the films deposited. The former may be due to a higher sputtering yield of Cu atom and the latter due to the re-sputtering phenomenon of Cu atoms on the surface of deposited film. The film deposited at higher pressures or at lower substrate temperatures have a smaller crystallite size, a higher electrical resistivity, and much more voids. This may be attributed to a lower surface mobility of sputtered atoms over the substrate.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2013.02a
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• pp.462-462
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• 2013

Gallium Oxide (Ga2O3) has been widely investigated for the optoelectronic applications due to its wide bandgap and the optical transparency. Recently, with the development of fabrication techniques in nanometer scale semiconductor materials, there have been an increasing number of extensive reports on the synthesis and characterization of Ga2O3 nano-structures such as nano-wires, nanobelts, and nano-dots. In contrast to typical vaporliquid-solid growth mode with metal catalysts to synthesis 1-dimensional nano-wires, there are several difficulties in fabricating the nanostructures by using sputtering techniques. This is attributed to the fact that relatively low growth temperatures and higher growth rate compared with chemical vapor deposition method. In this study, Ga2O3 chestnut burr were synthesized by using radio-frequency magnetron sputtering method. In contrast to typical sputtering method with sintered ceramic target, a Ga2O3 powder (99.99% purity) was used as a sputtering target. Several samples were prepared with varying the growth parameters, especially he growth time and the growth temperature to investigate the growth mechanism. Samples were characterized by using XRD, SEM, and PL measurements. In this presentation, the details of fabrication process and physical properties of Ga2O3 nano chestnut burr will be reported.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2012.02a
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• pp.96-97
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• 2012

In nitride and oxide film deposition, sputtered metals react with nitrogen or oxygen gas in a vacuum chamber to form metal nitride or oxide films on a substrate. The physical properties of sputtered films (metals, oxides, and nitrides) are strongly influenced by magnetron plasma density during the deposition process. Typical target power densities on the magnetron during the deposition process are ~ (5-30) W/cm2, which gives a relatively low plasma density. The main challenge in reactive sputtering is the ability to generate a stable, arc free discharge at high plasma densities. Arcs occur due to formation of an insulating layer on the target surface caused by the re-deposition effect. One current method of generating an arc free discharge is to use the commercially available Pinnacle Plus+ Pulsed DC plasma generator manufactured by Advanced Energy Inc. This plasma generator uses a positive voltage pulse between negative pulses to attract electrons and discharge the target surface, thus preventing arc formation. However, this method can only generate low density plasma and therefore cannot allow full control of film properties. Also, after long runs ~ (1-3) hours, depends on duty cycle the stability of the reactive process is reduced due to increased probability of arc formation. Between 1995 and 1999, a new way of magnetron sputtering called HIPIMS (highly ionized pulse impulse magnetron sputtering) was developed. The main idea of this approach is to apply short ${\sim}(50-100){\mu}s$ high power pulses with a target power densities during the pulse between ~ (1-3) kW/cm2. These high power pulses generate high-density magnetron plasma that can significantly improve and control film properties. From the beginning, HIPIMS method has been applied to reactive sputtering processes for deposition of conductive and nonconductive films. However, commercially available HIPIMS plasma generators have not been able to create a stable, arc-free discharge in most reactive magnetron sputtering processes. HIPIMS plasma generators have been successfully used in reactive sputtering of nitrides for hard coating applications and for Al2O3 films. But until now there has been no HIPIMS data presented on reactive sputtering in cluster tools for semiconductors and MEMs applications. In this presentation, a new method of generating an arc free discharge for reactive HIPIMS using the new Cyprium plasma generator from Zpulser LLC will be introduced. Data (or evidence) will be presented showing that arc formation in reactive HIPIMS can be controlled without applying a positive voltage pulse between high power pulses. Arc-free reactive HIPIMS processes for sputtering AlN, TiO2, TiN and Si3N4 on the Applied Materials ENDURA 200 mm cluster tool will be presented. A direct comparison of the properties of films sputtered with the Advanced Energy Pinnacle Plus + plasma generator and the Zpulser Cyprium plasma generator will be presented.