We’re continuing our series of customer spotlight blogs that highlight the work our customers do and their unique thin film applications. In this post, we’re showcasing the thin film deposition work of Dr. Adrienne Stiff-Roberts, Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Duke University. Dr. Stiff-Roberts and graduate students Spencer Ferguson and Tomas Barraza use a commercial Resonant IR Matrix Assisted Puled Laser Deposition (RIR-MAPLE) system from PVD Products in their work at Duke, which focuses primarily on thin film deposition of organic and hybrid materials. We spoke with the three of them to learn more about the strides they are making in Resonant IR Matrix Assisted Pulsed Laser Evaporation.

In the previous blogs of this series, we highlighted that the properties of the film are central to the design of a deposition instrument, with film thickness and uniformity being critical parameters for performance. Throughput predictions help to determine and maximize the system ROI. Proper design can also identify and trim away unnecessary cost elements, reducing the “I” in ROI. In part 2, we examined design considerations for rotating substrate. This blog will look at coating methods for linear motion systems.

In Part 1 of our deposition rate and uniformity series, we discussed the key considerations for deposition tool performance. The second part of our series takes a look at the steps for deposition system design based on rate and uniformity.

What are the key parameters of interest to anyone selecting a tool for thin film deposition? They are, of course, the film properties themselves. Concerning the process of growing the film, the most fundamental are the deposition rate and film thickness uniformity. The rate is important to reach proper film thickness in single or multi-layers, and to achieve stoichiometry in co-deposited films. The rate also correlates to how economically viable the system will be via the throughput: how long it will take to create the layer needed to serve a particular purpose. The uniformity determines how much of the film area will hold to these metrics over the entire area of the substrate, to within a desired tolerance.

For decades, PVD has been the leader in designing and building custom deposition systems. Our motto is "Creativity, Collaboration, Communication." What does that mean for our customers? Below we outlined how each of these words are applied into our process daily and how it translates into customer success.

Ion sources can be used for a variety of applications in thin film deposition and etching. For example, they can be used for substrate pre-cleaning, reactive deposition of oxide and nitrides (ion beam assisted deposition), and ion beam milling. When selecting and designing a deposition system that uses an ion source, many factors come into play. Some design features are dictated by the application, and some can be balanced against cost and performance. Below are five factors to keep in mind as you select an ion beam source.

A customized deposition system can help you achieve the best results with maximum efficiency. For example, a well-designed combinatorial deposition system can execute a program to produce a wide range of slightly different film compositions, each deposited within discrete test pads on a single substrate. This makes it possible to explore an enormous range of material combinations and structures within a single wafer run. Effective combinatorial deposition experiments require precise control over several deposition parameters, such as selection from multiple magnetrons and types of power supplies, target-to-substrate distance, mass flows from multiple MFCs, pressure, test pad exposure time, and exact substrate position. With full control of all parameters, practically any desired recipe can be executed within each test pad.

Our customers use our custom thin film deposition coating tools for a wide range of applications from thin film lithium Ion batteries to combinatorial materials development, high temperature superconductors, semiconductor, optical, and tribological materials, etc. Although we divide our coating technologies into four categories—sputtering, evaporation, pulsed laser deposition (PLD), and chemical vapor deposition (CVD)—the range of features and combinations that we offer create an unlimited number of possible coating system configurations. The complex interconnection and dependencies among features make it impossible to determine a system's cost from a general description. That said, at a very simplistic level, there are six factors that have a high impact on the cost of a deposition tool. In no specific order, these are:

At a fundamental level, the specifications for a specific thin-film coating will drive the overall requirements for a vacuum deposition system. Wise choices early in the concept phase will reduce the overall cost of a coating system without sacrificing the throughput or film quality.

If you look carefully at any of our equipment photos, you will find a small rubber ducky placed somewhere on the deposition tool. These ducks have become PVD's informal mascot, and we include one of our ducks with every deposition system that we ship. We often tell clients that the machine is free, but the duck costs $1,000,000! You may be wondering, what on earth do ducks have to do with thin-film deposition equipment? Well that’s a funny story.