D.C. Magnetron Sputtering Coating on Trenches

Abstract

The development and application of plasma processing such as plasma assisted CVD and PVD become highly important in various industrial fields such as microelectronics, sensors, solar cells, automobiles, cutting tools, etc.  In PVD different process are used such as Vacuum Evaporation, Electron Beam evaporation, Sputtering etc. But all processes have common limitation of one as such deposition is inline sight. It is difficult to achieve uniform coating on complex surfaces, holes and trenches. The width dimension and higher aspect ratio (Depth: width >1) of trenches generally in compatible with sputter deposition. When aspect ratio is increased, undesirable discontinuity can be observed at the lower half compared to upper half of trenches.  So that 3 axis rotation of substrate holder was designed with a stepper motors to get uniform coating on complex surfaces and holes. The angle of rotation and the speed are controlled by programmed micro controller. By positioning the surface features perpendicular to the plasma the holes, grooves are coated uniformly. The coating was characterized using X-ray diffractometer, SEM and micro hardness tester.