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Shilpa G D
Syllabus
UNIT-III
Thin Film Electronic Materials :
• Techniques for Preparation of Thin Films
• Thin Film Conducting Materials
• Thin Film Resistors
• Transparent and Conductive Thin Films
• Thin Film Magnetic Materials
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Thin Films
Thin films, a microscopically thin layer of material deposited onto a
substrate, could be Conductive, Semi-conductive or Dielectric .
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Thin Films
Most engineering materials (usually called bulk materials) have
fixed properties like electrical resistivity, optical opacity, etc.
Bulk materials have fixed properties and hence their applications
are limited. When the thickness is reduced, beyond certain limits
these properties show a drastic change
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PVD- Evaporation
Thermal Evaporation
Principle: The material to be deposited is placed in a filament or
boat which is resistively heated by passing a high current and the
vapour is allowed to condense on the substrate.
Limitations:
Limited to evaporation of metals with
relatively melting points (below 1500oC)
such as Al and Zn
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Electron beam Evaporation
Used for metals, ceramics (oxides and nitrides).
Fast deposition.
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Deposition rates can be controlled, as per the requirement,
from very low to very high (few Angstroms to several Microns)
– hence this process has potential industrial applications like
thin-multilayerd optical coatings to thick hard coatings (Ex:
Optical Filters, Hard Coatings, Wear-resistant thermal barrier
coatings for Aerospace, Electronics, Defence, etc.).
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Sputtering
• PRINCIPLE: Ejection of atoms from a material by
the bombardment of high energetic particles.
The ”energetic particles” may be ions, neutral atoms, neutrons,
electrons or protons.
Ions - easily accelerated using electric field – hence most
sputtering applications are performed using ions.
Ar + e- Ar+ + 2e-
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Features
• Sputtering yield: The average number of atoms
ejected from the target per incident ion. (0.1-10)
• It Depends on
Ion incident angle
Energy of the ion
Masses of the ion and target atoms
Surface binding energy of atoms in the target.
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Advantages of sputtering over evaporation:
• Wider choice of materials.
• Better adhesion to substrate.
• Films can be deposited over large wafer (process can be scaled)
• Sputter yield = #of atoms removed per incident ion
• Deposition rate is proportional to yield for a given plasma
energy
Disadvantages:
• High cost of equipment.
• Substrate heating due to electron (secondary) bombardment.
• Slow deposition rate. (1 atomic layer/sec).
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DC Diode Sputtering
Superior adhesion
Good crystalline structure
Target must be electrically
conductive.
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Magnetron Sputtering
Sputtering Targets
Magnetron
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Magnetron Sputtering
A physical phenomenon involving
The creation of plasma by discharge of neutral
gas such as Argon.
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Magnetron Sputtering
• For Dielectrics/insulators
• Advantages
– Electron Confinement
– High ionization
– Low pressure sputtering
– High purity of the films
• Disadvantages
Non uniform erosion
Less target utilization
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Molecular Beam Epitaxy
• Used to develop epitaxial films with atomic thickness on to single
crystal substrates.
• Advantage: Reflection High Energy Electron Diffraction (RHEED)
is used for monitoring of growth process.
Process: The word ‘beam’ means the evaporated atoms do not interact
with each other or with other vacuum chamber gases until they reach
the wafer.
• Ultra pure elements are heated in separate knudsen/effusion cells
until they begin to slowly sublimate.
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Pulsed Laser Deposition (PLD)
Used for high quality thin films
• e.g., transition metal oxides, nitrides, superconducting
materials such as YBa2Cu3O7-y (yttrium barium copper oxide)
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PLD
Layer fabrication
• Laser beam focus on the target
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( a ) 2D layer- by-layer growth
( b ) 3D island growth
( c ) layer-by-layer followed by an island growth
( d ) step-flow growth
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Chemical Methods
1. Sol gel : Wet chemical technique.
Used in synthesis of ceramics, polymers and other
nanostructured materials.
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Sol-gel films
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Reactions in Sol-gel
• Hydrolysis stage
- Alkoxide (OR) groups are replaced with hydroxyl groups
(OH)
Si-OR + H2O —> Si-OH + ROH.
• Condensation of two –OH or –OH with –OR groups to produce
M-O-M bonds and water
Si-OH + RO-Si --> Si-O-Si + ROH.
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2. Electroplating
• Electrolyte composition
• pH
• Current density
Advantages:
• High growth rates possible, good reproducibility.
• Can deposit materials which are hard to evaporate.
• Can grow epitaxial films.
• Generally better film quality, more conformal step coverage
(see image below).
Disadvantages:
• High process temperatures.
• Complex processes, toxic and corrosive gasses.
• Film may not be pure (hydrogen incorporation…).
38
• Metal-organic chemical vapour deposition (MOCVD)
is a type of CVD that utilizes metal-organic
precursors
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Types of thin film conducting materials
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A. Copper Cu
• Good electrical and thermal conductivity.
• High strength
• Excellent solderability.
• High resistance to fatigue
• Deposition Method: CVD, Thermal Evaporation, sputtering or
electrochemical plating
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Au and Ag
Au
• High electrical conductivity
• Corrosion resistant
• Environmental stability
• Deposition Method: evaporation or sputtering
• Inter layers of Ti or Cr are used to improve the adhesion.
• Used as top layer to protect other metallic layers.
Ag
• Good conductivity
• Deposition Method: evaporation or Electro chemical
deposition
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Cr-Au and NiCr-Au
• widely used multi-layered conducting thin films.
• Cr and NiCr films are used to improve the interfacial
adhesion
• Au film is the conducting film.
• At elevated temperatures, inter-diffusion between
these two sub-layers may occur, leading to the
formation of undesired compounds or structural
defects, and then resulting in increased electrical
resistance and decreased surface property, reliability,
and stability.
• In comparison with Cr- Au system, NiCr-Au system
has a lower inter-diffusion probability.
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Ti-Pd(Pt)-Au
• Better resistance stability under humid conditions
compared with NiCr-Au system.
• Excellent corrosion resistance since Ti has superior self-
passivation ability under most atmospheric conditions.
• The Pd or Pt layer sandwiched between the bottom Ti
layer (to improve interfacial bonding) and
• The top Au layer : Inhibit the inter-diffusion
• Ti, Pd, Pt, and Au layers can be prepared by evaporation
or sputtering techniques.
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FeCrAl – Cu - Au
• Widely used as end contacts for thin film resistors,
interconnectors and welding joints.
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Comparison of Thin Film Conducting
Materials
S.No Material Specifications
2 Al Acceptable degree of
adhesion
Good corrosion resistance
3 Au High electrical conductivity Ti or Cr used as intermediate
Excellent corrosion layer for adhesion
resistance
Environmental stability
• Requirements
Sufficient stability.
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Thin Film Resistors
• A thin layer of resistor material deposited onto a suitable substrate
(e.g., silicon, GaAs, or Al203).
• The deposition technique: Sputtering.
• The resistance value of a thin film resistor is given by the
relation
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• Three major design principles of discrete thin film resistors,
including:
a. CHIP-type
b. MELF-type
c. Leaded type
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Design Types
• Optical transparency
• Electrical conduction
Reflection
Thin Film
• Sheet Resistance Transmission
• t= Thickness of the film
• T = Total visible transmission
•
The larger is the
R=total visible reflectance value of σ/α the
better is the
performance of
the TCO films.
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Tin oxide (SnO2)
• SnO2 doped with F or Sb energy-efficient windows
• Direct Bang Gap 4.0 eV, Indirect Bang Gap 2.6 eV.
• Mobility is 20 cm2/V⋅s,
ITO/IZO
(For E.g., ITO (40 nm)
Thin metallic film To decrease the
(E.g., Ag (15 nm)& ref index n ~2) Resistivity(E.g reduce
ITO/IZO factor of ~20)
(E.g., ITO (40 nm))
refractive index(n)~2.0,
Micro /Nano-
Crystalline Amorphous
crystalline
• Ni80Fe20 alloy has been used for thin film inductive head
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Giant Magnetoresistive Film – why is
it useful?
• Discovery and application of the GMR phenomenon
is responsible for the ubiquitous availability of
economical, high density information storage in our
society.
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• GMR is the change in electrical resistance in
response to an applied magnetic field
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Discovery of GMR
Fert and Grünberg
• Discovered by independently by Professor Albert Fert of
Université Paris-Sud in France and Professor Peter Grünberg
of Forschungszentrum in Jülich, Germany.
• System:
– a thin layer of nonmagnetic material sandwiched
between two layers of magnetic material.
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Granular GMR
• An effect that occurs in solid precipitates of a magnetic
material in a non-magnetic matrix.
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Multilayer GMR
• NM of thickness ~1nm, Cr, Cu, Ag, Au etc (non
magnetic transition metal)
Deposition
PVD
E-Beam evaporation
Laser ablation
sputtering
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Applications of GMR
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