Six physical vapor deposition chambers (3 PVD, 1 E-beam, 1 dual ion beam source, and 1 thermal evaporator) allow our scientists and users to deposit novel materials including complex oxides, strain engineered multilayers, graded high entropy alloys, and thick epitaxial films. Heated and biased stages allow for intimate control over several microstructural features such as texture, density, chemistry, and grain size. A new HiPIMS unit will allow for dense metallic and nitride thin films. In-Situ growth diagnostics including a laser curvature tool, surface acoustic wave (SAW), and RHEED monitoring systems, measure internal stress, modulus, and crystallography of films as they are being grown.

Capabilities include:

DC Magnetron Sputtering

• 2" direct sputtering sources for co-deposition and multilayers
• 3" HiPIMS sources for metals and ceramics
• Pulsed DC power supply for reactive N2 or O2 sputtering
• RF power supplies for oxide deposition
• DC/RF substrate biasing
• 4" wafer handling
• 700 C sample heating
• Base pressure ~8.0 E-8 Torr
• In-Situ plasma monitoring, RGA, and strain measurement
• Glovebox for air-free sample handling

Dual Source E-Beam Evaporation

• DC/RF substrate biasing
• E-beam sources for co-deposition and multilayers
• 4" wafer handling
• 700 °C sample heating
• Base pressure ~4.0 E-8 Torr
• In-Situ RHEED characterization
• Ion beam assisted deposition

Dual Ion Beam Sputtering and Etching

• Ion beam assisted deposition
• Multilayer applications
• Ion beam etcher
• Low process pressure deposition
• Reactive ion beam sputtering with O2, N2, and Ar
• Base pressure ~1.0 E-8 Torr
• 4" wafer handling
• 800 °C sample heating

Characterization Chamber (XPS, Auger, SEM, XRF, Profilometry)

• Mapping XRF for chemistry mapping
• DekTak profilometer for roughness, strain, thickness measurements
• Base pressure ~1.0 E-8 Torr
• Auger (3 – 10 keV) spectroscopy
• Staib Instruments XPS
• Staib Instruments SEM

Contact:
Chris Sheehan

Research Highlight:
Effects of Substrate Temperature and Deposition Rate on the Phase Separated Morphology of Co-Sputtered, Cu-Mo Thin Films

Derby, B.; Cui, Y.; Baldwin, J. K.; Misra, A.  Thin Solid Films 2018, 647, 50–56. DOI:10.1016/j.tsf.2017.12.013.