A simple model for non-saturated reactive sputtering processes
2019 (English)In: Thin Solid Films, ISSN 0040-6090, E-ISSN 1879-2731, Vol. 688, article id UNSP 137413Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]
Reactive sputtering processes are quite complex processes and therefore difficult to understand in detail. However, a number of attempts to clearify the behaviour of reactive sputtering of oxides and nitrides have been made. Several process modelling results for such processes have been published that reasonable well mirrors the actual experimental findings. All of these models indicate that the processes normally exhibit hysteresis effects and that the oxides/nitrides will saturate at the stoichiometric compound values. We therefore call these processes saturated reactive sputtering processes. Carrying out reactive sputtering in a hydrocarbon gas like CH4 instead of in oxygen or nitrogen cannot be described with the previously suggested models for oxide or nitride formations. Decomposition of the CH4 molecule in the plasma may result both in carbide formation with the target metal as well as plasma deposited carbon. Depending on the supply of the CH4 the deposited film composition may vary from 0 to 100% of carbon. In the extreme case of very high supply of CH4 a pure carbon film will be deposited. We expect that similar behaviour will be found when carrying out reactive sputtering in other solid material containing gases like e.g. silane or diborane. We have chosen to call such processes non-saturated reactive sputtering processes. In order to understand the behaviour of non-saturated reactive sputtering processes we have developed a new model that enables the user to find the response to individual processing parameters and thus obtain a tool for process optimization. In order to limit the number of parameters our model is outlined for reactive sputtering of Ti in a mixture of argon and CH4. In this article we report that the simulation results reasonable well correlate with our experimental findings.
Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
2019. Vol. 688, article id UNSP 137413
Keywords [en]
Thin film, Deposition, Reactive sputtering, PVD, Titanium carbide, Process modelling, Simulation
National Category
Other Electrical Engineering, Electronic Engineering, Information Engineering
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-395417DOI: 10.1016/j.tsf.2019.137413ISI: 000485256500004OAI: oai:DiVA.org:uu-395417DiVA, id: diva2:1362296
Funder
Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation, KAW2016.0358Swedish Research Council, 2018-03957Vinnova, 2018-04290Carl Tryggers foundation , CTS 17:336; CTS 15:219; CTS 14:431; CTS 17:1662019-10-182019-10-182019-10-18Bibliographically approved