Sputtering is one of the most popular technologies for deposition of thin films. Although sputtering was first developed about 200 years ago, since World War II it has become increasingly important for the creation of innovative devices, becoming fundamental in sustaining the growing demand for semiconductor circuits and other electronic devices.

Sputtering targets have found increasing penetration not only in electronics, but also in sectors such as mechanical/chemical, energy, optical coating, and life science, among others.

Although for decades sputtering was primarily used in microelectronics for fabrication of semiconductor devices, in recent years, as the semiconductor industry transitions to new processes that allow for the fabrication of thin films below 20 nm, sputtering has found alternative sources of demand in other industry segments such as flat panel displays and solar cell manufacturing.

In fact, over time the availability of sputtering materials has expanded to meet the requirements of the most varied applications within the electronics, mechanical/chemical, energy, optical coatings, life science, and food packaging sectors. Read More

The vacuum process of thin film deposition involves the application of coatings of pure materials over the surface of varied and differing objects. The thickness of coatings or films typically possess a range of microns and angstroms and can be of single material or a layered structure of multiple materials. Using quartz crystal monitoring, there are basic principles used to control the thickness and rate of thin film deposition.

The key class of deposition methods is evaporation which involes heating a solid material within a high vacuum chamber in which vapor pressure is produced. A relatively low vapor pressure is adequate to raise a vapor cloud within the vacuum chamber, which is then condensed over surfaces as a coating or film.

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Vision Flat is an international technology and networking event that celebrates twenty years of research and development in the field of thin-film vacuum coating on flat substrates at the Fraunhofer FEP.

Representatives of leading companies, Corning Inc., Saint-Gobain Glass, Schott AG and experts in this field will highlight recent technological achievements and provide an outlook on future trends. New smart products and the global increasing demand for transparent architecture are posing new challenges to the fabrication and handling of flat materials such as glass, flexible glass and polymers.

The technology session will cover the aspects of large-area, homogeneous, dynamic layer deposition, up-scaling of coating processes, in-line process monitoring, deposition of layer systems via sputtering for architectural glazing, lighting, automotive applications and optics. Read More

Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry (SIMS) is a technique used in materials science to study the composition of thin films and solid surfaces by sputtering the sample’s surface with a focused primary ion beam. In recent years, there has been an increasing interest in studying dopants and contaminants in thin layers near surface in samples, as the device structures get smaller and smaller.

SIMS can be used for examining the elementary composition of the surface as well as near surface region of samples with sensitivity down to parts per billion. In order to get the maximum performance from the device, atmospheric contaminants with low atomic weight such as and oxygen (O), carbon (C), and hydrogen (H) should have low concentration levels.

SIMS: A High Sensitivity Surface Analysis Technique

In SIMS analysis, contamination of hydrocarbons on the surface of the sample to be assessed may produce incorrect results. Hydrocarbons exist abundantly in ambient atmosphere and often deposit on the surface of samples when exposed to air.

During SIMS analysis, the atmospheric contamination on the surface can be embedded into the sample by means of a primary ion beam; this contamination leads to distorted or spurious profiles. Therefore, it is very important for operators to know whether they are determining the surface’s composition or just viewing an artifact caused by contamination. Read More

Sputtered Neutral Mass Spectrometry is perfect for analyzing thin metal films where composition, thickness and interface condition can be determined. The example presented here, shows a magnetic film stack comprising Cr, Ni, Cu and Fe. Of the different methods of data storage, magnetic hard discs still offer highly economic means for high density rapid access. The continual move towards more and more compact read/write heads and more closely spaced data tracks has lead to a considerable development of magnetic materials and structures for this demanding application. Analysis of the metallic layer structures used in magnetic data storage is vital for both development and quality management with secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS) and sputtered neutral mass spectrometry (SNMS) offering information on minor and major element composition respectively.

SIMS and SNMS

Both SIMS and SNMS use a concentrated, mono- energetic, chemically pure ion beam of typically 1-10 keV to sputter erode the surface under study. A small fraction of the sputtered material gets ionized due to the sputtering process itself and in SIMS, it is these ions that offer the sensitive information for which the technique is known. Being a mass spectrometry technique, all elements and isotopes may be detected, and in favorable conditions the detection limit can be in the low ppb region. However, because the ionization mechanism for SIMS takes place at the sample surface, it is very much dependent on the local chemistry and the ionized fraction can vary by several orders of magnitude. This makes SIMS ideal for trace analysis in materials of known matrix but quantification in materials of changing matrix can be complicated. SNMS overcomes the “matrix effect” by separating the sputtering and ionization events.