Intro MEMS Due: 4/12/2016 by 5 PM

HW #3 – Vacuum Science and PVD

1. Calculate the mean free path at room temperature for N2, with a molecular diameter of
0.4 nm, at pressures of 1 atm, 0.01 atm, 0.0001 atm, and 10-6 atm. How do these
distances compare to the size of typical semiconductor features (< 100 nm, called the
feature-scale), the size of a wafer (~100 mm, called the wafer-scale), and the size of the
vacuum chamber (~1 m, called the reactor-scale)?

2. Calculate the mean free path of a particle in the gas phase of a deposition system and
estimate the number of collisions it experiences in traveling from the source to the
substrate in each of the cases below. Assume that in each case the molecular collisional
diameter is 0.3 nm and that the number of collisions is approximately equal to the
source- to-substrate distance divided by the mean free path.

a. An evaporation system in which the pressure is 10-5 torr, the source-to-

̊ .
substrate distance is 70 cm, and the temperature is 25 C
b. A sputter deposition system in which the pressure is 3 mtorr, the source-
̊ .
to-substrate distance is 5 cm, and the temperature is 25 C

3. An evaporator is being used to deposit nickel as a contact for a heat actuator. The
nickel has a density of 8.9 gm/cm3. The nickel charge is maintained at a uniform
temperature of 1600°C. If the evaporator planetary has a radius/distance of 40 cm and
the diameter of the crucible is 5 cm, determine the deposition rate of nickel in nm/min.

4. An evaporator has a crucible with a 5 cm2 surface area. The evaporator planetary has a
30 cm radius/ distance to the subtrate. Determine the crucible temperature needed to
obtain a gold deposition rate of 0.1 nm/sec. The density and atomic mass of gold are
18,890 kg/m3 and 197 amu respectively.

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Intro MEMS Due: 4/12/2016 by 5 PM

BONUS:
5. A DC sputtering system is used to deposit aluminum. The system has two large circular
parallel plates (see below). If the diameter of the plates is much larger than the plate
spacing, near the center of the system, sputtering is essentially a one-dimensional
process and transport losses are very low. At 20 mtorr of argon, the maximum sputter
deposition rate on the wafer for any power in the plasma is found to be 100 nm/min in
this chamber.

a. The number density of aluminum is 6.0 x 1022 cm-3. Find the flux of
aluminum atoms on the surface of the wafer. (Remember Flux = R x N –
where R is the deposition rate and N is the number density).
b. Using simple kinetic energy arguments, calculate the approximate flux of
neutral argon atoms that arrive at the surface of the wafer. Let argon
temperature = 400 K.
𝑃2
Hint: 𝐽𝑛 = √
2𝜋𝑘𝑇𝑚

c. If the maximum deposition rate occurs at the bias that produces the
maximum sputter yield, what is the sputter yield (S) for this process?
d. : If every aluminum atom ejected from the target eventually arrives at the
wafer, and the aluminum atoms are ejected by argon ions only, what
fraction of the argon in the plasma is ionized? (Hint: Since J is
proportional to P, the fraction of gas that is ionized is equal to the ratio of
the fluxes).

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