• 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.

• Proceedings of the Materials Research Society of Korea Conference
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• 1993.11a
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• pp.118-118
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• 1993

• Journal of the Korean Crystal Growth and Crystal Technology
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• v.6 no.4
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• pp.480-492
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• 1996

AZO (Aluminum doped Zinc Oxide) transparent conducting thin films were fabricated by reactive DC mangnetron sputtering method using zinc target containing 2 wt% of Al. Transition range with optimum transmittance and conductivity was obtained by contrlling partial pressure of reactive oxygen gas. Sputtering condition for this transition range could be kept stable by regulating the target voltage. According to XRD analysis, there was only one peak for (002) plane in AZO films and the films deposited in transition range.

• Proceedings of the Materials Research Society of Korea Conference
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• 2001.11a
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• pp.153-153
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• 2001

• Journal of Surface Science and Engineering
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• v.37 no.3
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• pp.169-174
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• 2004

MgO thin films were reactively deposited using an internal inductively coupled plasma assisted sputtering method varying reactive gas ratio to get stoichiometric film composition, and bipolar dc substrate bias to suppress micro arcs. The minimum frequency required for arc suppression was about 10KHz depending on ICP power. Their crystallinity was analyzed using X-ray diffraction and surface morphology using AFM. The surface was very smooth with rms roughness less than 0.42nm. The preferred orientation of the films were changing from (200) to bulk-like characteristics as Ar: $O_2$ratio was controlled to 10 : 2. Optical emission spectroscopy revealed that there were two distinct discharge modes: a blue one and a green one, where enhanced emission from Ar and Mg were observed. This cannot simply be understood by metallic or oxide mode of reactive sputtering due to ICP coupled to magnetron discharge.

• Journal of the Korean Vacuum Society
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• v.19 no.5
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• pp.341-346
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• 2010

In this paper, anti-reflection coating was investigated for decreasing the reflection in visible range of 400~650 [nm] through four staked layers of $Si_xO_y$ and $Si_xN_y$ thin films prepared by reactive sputtering method. Si single crystal of 6 [inch] diameter was used as a sputtering target. Ar and $O_2$ gases were used as sputtering gases for reactive sputtering for the $Si_xO_y$ thin film, and Ar and $N_2$ gases were used for reactive sputtering for the $Si_xN_y$ thin film. DC pulse power of 1900 [W] was used for the reactive sputtering. Refractive index and deposition rate were 1.50 and 2.3 [nm/sec] for the $Si_xO_y$, and 1.94 and 1.8 [nm/sec] for the $Si_xN_y$ thin film, respectively. Considering the simulation of the four layer anti-reflection coating structure with the above mentioned films, the $Si_xO_y-Si_xN_y$ stacked four-layer structure was prepared. The reflection measurement result for that structure showed that a "W" shaped anti-reflection was obtained successfully with a reflection of 1.7 [%] at 550 [nm] region and a reflection of 1 [%] at 400~650 [nm] range.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.11 no.7
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• pp.527-534
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• 1998

Thin film deposition of InN, which is a less-studied III-nitride compound semiconductor because of the difficulty if crystal growth, was performed by rf reactive sputtering method using In target and $N_2$reactive gas. The structrual, electrical, and optical properties of the produced films were measured and disussed according to the sputtering parameters such as deposition pressure, rf power, and substrate temperature. From the result of deposition pressure, rf power, and substrate temperature, we could obtain optimal conditions of 5m Torr, 60W, $60^{\circ}C$ for preparing InN thin film with high crystallinity, low carrier concentration, and high Hall mobility. The carrier concentration, Hall mobility, and optical bandgap of the fabricated InN thin films at optimal condition were $6.242\times10^{18}cm^{-3}, 212.526cm^2/V\cdot$ｓ, and 1.912eV, respectively.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.22 no.10
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• pp.808-813
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• 2009

Indium nitride thin films were deposited by the radio-frequency reactive magnetron sputtering method. The indium target was sputtered by the mixture flow ratio of $N_2$ to Ar, 9:1. The effects of growth temperature on the structural, optical, and electrical properties of the films were investigated. With increasing the growth temperature, the crystallinity of the films was improved, and the crystalline size was increased. The energy bandgap for the film grown at $25^{\circ}C$ was 3.63 eV, and the bandgap showed an increasing tendency on the growth temperature. The carrier concentration, Hall mobility and electrical resistivity of the films depended significantly on the growth temperature and the maximum Hall mobility of $32.3\;cm^2$/Vsec was observed for the film grown at $400^{\circ}C$.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.8-13
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• 2007

In MIS capacitor structure, we have studied the electrical properties in Ammonium Sulfide solution treatment while AIN thin film as a insulator is being formed by reactive sputtering method. The deposition process conditions of AIN thin film we temperature $250^{\circ}C$, DC Power 150 W, pressure 5 mTorr and 8 sccm(Ar : 4 sccm, $N_{2}$ : 4 sccm). The surface of GaAs was treated with Ammonium Sulfide solution, it was shown the leakage current was less than $10^{-8}\;A/cm^{2}$. The deep depletion phenomena of inverse area with treating Ammonium Sulfide solution in C-V analysis was improved as compared the condition of without Ammonium Sulfide solution and hysteresis property as well.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.18 no.11
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• pp.977-982
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• 2005

Al/AlN/n-type 6H-SiC (0001) MIS structures were prepared by AlN layers on vicinal 6H-SiC(0001) substrates with reactive RF magnetron sputtering method. The AlN films were annealed at $900^{\circ}C$, $N_2$ atmosphere lot 1 minutes showed the best result. With XRD analysis, AlN(0002) peak was clearly found. The typical dielectric constant value of the AlN film in the MIS capacitors was obtained as 8.4 from photo C-V. Also, the gate leakage current density of the MlS capacitor was $10^{-10}\;A/cm^2$ order within the electric field of 1.8 MV/cm. Finally, the amount of interface trap densities, $D_{it}$, was evaluated as $5.3\times10^{10}\;eV^{-1}cm^{-2}$ at (Ec-0.85) eV.