Physical Vapor

Deposition

PVD

Physical methods produce the atoms

that deposit on the substrate
Evaporation
Sputtering

Sometimes called vacuum deposition

because the process is usually done in
an evacuated chamber
PVD is used for metals.
Dielectrics can be deposited using specialized
equipment

Evaporation

Rely on thermal energy supplied to the crucible or

boat to evaporate atoms
Evaporated atoms travel through the evacuated
space between the source and the sample and
stick to the sample
Few, if any, chemical reactions occur due to low pressure
Can force a reaction by flowing a gas near the crucible

Surface reactions usually occur very rapidly and

there is very little rearrangement of the surface
atoms after sticking
Thickness uniformity and shadowing by surface
topography, and step coverage are issues

Evaporation

http://www.ee.byu.edu/cleanroom/metal.parts/vaporpressure.jpg

Mean Free Path

~ 63% of molecules undergo a collision in a

distance less than and ~0.6% travel more
than 5
1

2d o2 n
PV nRT (Ideal Gas Law)
0.05

P (in torr )
where do is the diameter of the evaporatant and n
is the concentration of gas molecules in the
chamber

Evaporation

The vacuum is usually < 10-5 torr

4x10-6 torr, = 18 inches

The source heater can be

Resistance (W, Mo, Ta filament)

Contaminants in filament systems are Na or K because they

are used in the production of W

E-beam (graphite or W crucible)

E-beam is often cleaner although S is a common

contaminant in graphite

Top surface of metal is melted during evaporation so there is

little contamination from the crucible

More materials can be evaporated (high melting-point

materials)
A downside of e-beam is that X-rays are produced when the
electron beam hits the Al melt
These X-rays can create trapped charges in the gate oxide
This damage must be removed by annealing

Thermal Evaporation

http://www.lesker.com/neww
eb/Deposition_Sources/Ther
malEvaporationSources_Resi
stive.cfm

E-beam Evaporation

http://www.fen.bilkent.edu.tr/~aykutlu/msn551/evaporation.pdf

PVD
At

sufficiently low pressure and

reasonable distances between source
and wafer, evaporant travel in
straight line to the wafer
Step coverage is close to zero
If the source is small, we can treat it as
a point source
If the source emission is isotropic, it is
easy to compute the distribution of
atoms at the surface of the wafer

PVD

PVD

For a source that emits only upwards, =

2
The number of atoms
Revapthat hit the area Ak of the
Fk
cos k
2
surface is
r
The deposition velocity is the above expression
divided by the density (N) of the material
Revap
v
cos k
2
Nr

Evaporation
Revap

m
5.83 10 AS
T
2

1/ 2

Pe

Pe is the equilibrium vapor pressure of the melt (torr)

m is the gram-molecular mass
T is the temperature (K)
As is area of source

The vapor pressure depends strongly on the

temperature (Claussius-Clapeyron equation)
In order to have a reasonable evaporation rate (0.1-1
m/min), the vapor pressure must be about 1-10 mtorr

PVD

PVD
The

velocity can be normalized to the

velocity at the center of the wafer

PVD

Corrections can be applied if the source is

a small, finite area
If we now move the center of the wafer from
the perpendicular position, but tile it with
respect to the source, an extra term must be
added

Revap
Nr

cos k cos i

Planetaries
Wafer

holders that rotate wafer

position during deposition to increase
film thickness uniformity across
wafer and from one wafer to another.
Wobbling wafer holders increase step
coverage

PVD
Nonuniformity

of evaporatant can
occur when angular emission of
evaporant is narrower than the ideal
source

Crucible geometry
Melt depth to melt area ratio
Density of gas atoms over the surface of
the melt

Evaporation

Evaporating alloys is difficult Because of

the differing vapor pressures.
Composition of the deposited material may
very different from that of the target material

The problem can be overcome by

Using multiple e-beams on multiple sources
This technique causes difficulties in sample
uniformity because of the spacing of the sources

Evaporating source to completion (until no

material is left)
Dangerous to do in e-beam system

Evaporation
Compounds

are also hard to

evaporate because the molecular
species may be different from the
compound composition
Energy provided may be used to
dissociate compound.
When evaporating SiO2, SiO is deposited.
Evaporation in a reactive environment
(flowing O2 gas near crucible during
deposition) helps reconstitute oxide.

Evaporation

Advantages
Little damage to the
wafer
Deposited films are
usually very pure
Limited step
coverage

Disadvantages
Materials with low
vapor pressures ae
very difficult to
evaporated
Refractory metals
High temperature
dielectrics

No in situ precleaning
Limited step
coverage
Film adhesion can be
problematic

Step-coverage

Evaporation technique is very

directional due to the large
mean free paths of gas
molecules at low pressure.
Shadowing of patterns and
poor step coverage can occur
when depositing thin films.
Rotation of the planetary
substrate holder can
minimize these effects.
Heating substrate can
promote atom mobility,
improve step coverage and
adhesion.
Shadow masking and lift-off
are processes where poor
step coverage is desirable.

Other PVD Techniques

Other

deposition techniques include

Sputter deposition (DC, RF, and

reactive)
Bias sputtering
Magnetron sputtering
Collimated and ionized sputter
deposition
Hot sputter deposition

Sputtering

Sputter deposition is done

in a vacuum chamber
(~10mTorr) as follows:
Plasma is generated by
applying an RF signal
producing energetic ions.
Target is bombarded by
these ions (usually Ar+).
Ions knock the atoms from
the target.
Sputtered atoms are
transported to the substrate
where deposition occurs.

Sputtering

Wide variety of materials can be

deposited because material is
put into the vapor phase by a
mechanical rather than a
chemical or thermal process
(including alloys and insulators).
Excellent step coverage of the
sharp topologies because of a
higher chamber pressure,
causing large number of
scattering events as target
material travels towards wafers.
Film stress can be controlled to
some degree by the chamber
pressure and RF power.

http://www.knovel.com

Deposition conditions
Temperature:

Room to higher
Pressure: 100mtorr
compromise between increasing number
of Ar ions and increasing scattering of Ar
ions with neutral Ar atoms
Power

Heating of target material

Low temperature metals can melt from
temperature rise caused by energy transfer
from Ar ions

Sputter sources

Magnetron
Magnetic field traps freed electron near target
Move in helical pattern, causing large number of
scattering events with Ar gas creating high density of
ionized Ar

Ion beam
Plasma of ions generated away from target and then
accelerated toward start by electric field

Reactive sputtering
Gas used in plasma reacts with target material to form
compond that is deposited on wafer

Ion-assisted deposition
Wafer is biased so that some Ar ion impact its surface,
density the deposited film. May sputter material off of
wafer prior to deposition for in-situ cleaning.

Sputtering

Advantages
Large-size targets,
simplifying the deposition of
thins with uniform thickness
over large wafers
Film thickness is easily
controlled by fixing the
operating parameters and
simply adjusting the
deposition time
Control of the alloy
composition, step coverage,
grain structure is easier
obtained through
evaporation
Sputter-cleaning of the
substrate in vacuum prior to
film deposition
Device damage from X-rays
generated by electron beam
evaporation is avoided.

Disadvantages
High capital expenses are
required
Rates of deposition of
some materials (such as
SiO2) are relatively low
Some materials such as
organic solids are easily
degraded by ionic
bombardment
Greater probability to
introduce impurities in the
substrate because the
former operates under a
higher pressure

Salicide

http://www.research.ibm.com/journal/rd/444/jordansweet.html