Vapor Deposition

Methods
Lecture 3
 Contents

• Epitaxy
• Types of Vapor Deposition
– Physical Vapor Deposition (PVD)
• Different Methods of PVD
– Chemical Vapor Deposition (CVD)
• CVD process, Techniques and Comparison
• Comparison between CVD & PVD

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Epitaxy

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 Film Thickness
• Thin-Film
– Prepared by deposition of single atoms or
Molecules  from the gaseous or liquid phase
Thin-film < 1μm
• Thick-Film
– Prepared by deposition of particles consisting of
many atoms or Molecules e.g. wall paint
Thick-Film > 1μm

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 Vapor Deposition
Definition:
Any process in which materials in a vapor state are
condensed through condensation, chemical reaction, or
conversion to form a solid material is called Vapor
deposition.

Processes usually take place within a vacuum chamber.

Two categories of vapor deposition processes:

– Physical vapor deposition PVD

– Chemical vapor deposition CVD

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PHYSICAL VAPOR DEPOSITION
(PVD)

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 Physical Vapor Deposition (PVD)
PVD process is defined as the creation of vapors in a
vacuum from solid material sources and their
subsequent condensation onto a substrate.
Substrate is subjected to plasma bombardment of the
reactants
•Plasma bombardment of the substrate to ensure a dense,
hard coating.

Atoms to gas state:

heat source until Pvapor > 10-4 torr.

Solid  vapor (sublimation)

Solid  liquid  vapor

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 Physical Vapor Deposition (PVD)

PVD methods are:

Evaporation
Electron beam Evaporation
 Sputtering
 Pulsed Laser Deposition

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Evaporator System

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Electron Beam Evaporation

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 Sputtering System

• A plasma at higher pressure is

used to “knock” metal atoms out
of a “target”.

• These energetic atoms deposit on

a wafer located near the target.
The higher pressure produces
better step coverage due to more
random angled delivery.

• The excess energy of the ions also

aids in increasing the surface
mobility (movement of atoms on
the surface). 14
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Pulsed-Laser Deposition (PLD)
PLD has a great deal of attention in last few years due
to ease of use and success in depositing materials of
complex stoichiometry.

PLD used first time to deposit a superconducting

YBa2Cu3O7-d thin film successfully. Especially used for
multi-element oxides deposition.

PLD relies on a photon interaction to create an

ejected plume of material from any target.

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Pulsed Laser Deposition cont.

The vapor (plume) is collected on a substrate placed a short

distance from the target. the laser-induced expulsion
produces a plume of material with stoichiometry similar to
the target. It is generally easier to obtain the desired film
stoichiometry for multi-element materials.

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 Advantages of PLD
Simple Method: A laser beam vaporizes a target surface,
producing a film with the same composition as the target.
Versatile: Many materials can be deposited in a wide variety of
gases over a broad range of gas pressures.

Fast Action : high quality samples can be grown reliably in 10 or

15 minutes.

Scalable : as complex oxides move toward volume production.

Cost-effective: one laser can serve many vacuum systems.

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CHEMICAL VAPOR DEPOSITION
(CVD)

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 Chemical Vapor Deposition (CVD)

• In CVD process, reactant gases enter the reaction

chamber. The mixture of gases is heated and
approaches the deposition surface, e.g. heated
substrate.
– Depending on the process and operating
conditions, the reactant gases may undergo
homogeneous chemical reactions in the vapor
phase before striking the surface.

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 CVD Process

 A precursor gas or gases are flow into a chamber containing heated substrate to be
coated.
 Chemical reactions occur on and near the hot surfaces. By-products are exhausted out of
the chamber along with unreacted precursor gases.

 CVD is done at sub-torr total pressures to above-Atmospheric pressures, with and

without carrier gases, and at temperatures typically ranging from 200-1600°C.
 Reactions in CVD Process
Typically following reactions occur during CVD process:
1. Pyroylsis
2. Reduction
3. Oxidation
4. Compound formation
5. Disproportionation
6. Reversible transfer

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Pyrolysis reaction

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 Several processes in series
• In order to find out J1 and J2,we have to consider the Diffusion
equation.

• Where the layer thickness is given as

• Where

• 

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Other CVD reactions

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Other CVD reactions (cont)

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• Consider

• There are three unknown pressures. Total pressure is.

• More over the equilibrium constant ‘k’ is given as

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 Merit & De-Merits of CVD
Merits
Deposit materials which are hard to evaporate
Grow epitaxial films
Highly pure deposition
Relatively high deposition rates
 CVD doesn’t require as high a vacuum as PVD

De-Merits
 High temperatures
Complex processes
Toxic and Corrosive gasses
Example

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Example cont’d

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 CVD Techniques
Today various CVD techniques are used:
Atmospheric pressure chemical vapor deposition
(APCVD)
Low pressure chemical vapor deposition (LPCVD)
Plasma assisted /enhanced chemical vapor
deposition (PACVD, PECVD)
Photochemical vapor deposition (PCVD)
Laser chemical vapor deposition (LCVD)
Metal-organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD)
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Common Deposition Methods

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Common Deposition Methods cont’d

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 Hazards in CVD process
Gas Formula B. pt (°C) Hazard
Ammonia NH3 -33.35 Toxic, Corrosive
Argon Ar -185.7 Inert
Arsine AsH3 -55 Toxic
Diborane B2H6 -92.5 Toxic, flammable
Dichlorosilane SiCl2H2 - 8.3 Toxic, flammable
Hydrogen H2 -252.8 flammable
Nitrogen N2 -210 Inert
Nitrous oxide N2O -88.5 Oxidizer
Oxygen O2 -183 Oxidizer
Toxic, P2H4 impurities,
Phosphine PH3 -87.7
flammable
Silane SiH4 -111.8 Flammable, Toxic
Physical Vapor Deposition (PVD)
vs.
Chemical Vapor Deposition (CVD)

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PVD and CVD

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PVD vs. CVD

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 Limits and Future Trends
• NTRS roadmap projects increase in
– Aspect ratio of metal lines, Spaces between the lines,
Via and contact holes
• This means that spaces and holes will get smaller
and deeper
• PECVD process for Ti using TiCl4 for filling small
holes
• Atomic Layer Deposition (ALD) used for
extremely conformal coverage of very thin layers

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 Limits and Future Trends cont’d

• SIMBAD/GROFILM are examples of deposition

simulators with physical structure and
composition:
– In SIMBAD, two dimensional discs rather than
atoms or molecules are used in simulating
deposition
– GROFILM ,extends Thorton’s zone modeling to
include processes like wetting, reflow, grain
boundary and crystal faceting

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 Summary
• Thin films deposition discussed
– Important issues including physical and chemical
properties of the film are discussed.
– CVD and PVD are two main deposition techniques
– CVD is chemical reaction based and done at
elevated temp.
• Used for dielectrics, in general have low sticking
coefficient and isotropic arrival angle distribution, leading
to good step coverage.
– PVD processes are physically based. Arrival angle
distribution (source material) at wafer surface. Used
for metals, have a high sticking coefficient. 43
Details of Gas Transport Reaction
Phenomena during CVD Process
(Self study)

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 Gas Transport
• For laminar flow across plate.

• where
and

• Revisited gas dynamics. We have

• The average boundary thickness over the whole plate is .

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 Gas transport (cont)
• Finding J2 .By definition,

• Where Ks is the reaction constant.

• In order to find Cs , we use steady state condition.

• So putting the value of Cs in above equation. We have

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General picture.

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 Gas Transport (cont)
• Film growth rate can be given as follow. (J2 = Nfv )

• so

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 Gas Transport, Different cases.
• last equation we have

• Case 1(Transport limited Growth ).

• Case 2(Reaction Limited Growth)

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Transport limited Growth, Case 1

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Reaction Limited Growth, Case 2

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