Physical Vapor

Deposition
 PVD
 Physical methods produce the atoms that
deposit on the substrate
– Evaporation
– Sputtering
 Sometimes called vacuum deposition because
the process is usually done in an evacuated
chamber
 PVD is used for metals.
 Dielectrics can be deposited using specialized equipment
 Evaporation
 Rely on thermal energy supplied to the crucible or boat
to evaporate atoms
 Evaporated atoms travel through the evacuated space
between the source and the sample and stick to the
sample
– Few, if any, chemical reactions occur due to low pressure
– Can force a reaction by flowing a gas near the crucible
 Surface reactions usually occur very rapidly and there is
very little rearrangement of the surface atoms after
sticking
– Thickness uniformity and shadowing by surface topography, and
step coverage are issues
Evaporation
http://www.ee.byu.edu/cleanroom/metal.parts/vaporpressure.jpg
 Mean Free Path
 ~ 63% of molecules undergo a collision in a
distance less than and ~0.6% travel more
than 5  1

2d o2 n
PV  nRT (Ideal Gas Law)
0.05

P (in torr )

– where do is the diameter of the evaporatant and n is

the concentration of gas molecules in the chamber
 Evaporation
 The vacuum is usually < 10-5 torr
– 4x10-6 torr,  = 18 inches
 The source heater can be
– Resistance (W, Mo, Ta filament)
 Contaminants in filament systems are Na or K because they are
used in the production of W
– E-beam (graphite or W crucible)
 E-beam is often cleaner although S is a common contaminant in
graphite
– Top surface of metal is melted during evaporation so there is little
contamination from the crucible
 More materials can be evaporated (high melting-point materials)
 A downside of e-beam is that X-rays are produced when the
electron beam hits the Al melt
– These X-rays can create trapped charges in the gate oxide
– This damage must be removed by annealing
Thermal Evaporation

http://www.lesker.com/newweb
/Deposition_Sources/ThermalEv
aporationSources_Resistive.cfm
 E-beam Evaporation

http://www.fen.bilkent.edu.tr/~aykutlu/msn551/evaporation.pdf
 PVD
 At sufficiently low pressure and reasonable
distances between source and wafer,
evaporant travel in straight line to the
wafer
– Step coverage is close to zero
– If the source is small, we can treat it as a
point source
– If the source emission is isotropic, it is easy to
compute the distribution of atoms at the
surface of the wafer
PVD
 PVD
 For a source that emits only upwards,  = 2
– The number of atoms that hit the area Ak of the surface
is Revap
Fk  cos k
r 2

– The deposition velocity is the above expression divided

by the density (N) of the material

Revap
v cos k
Nr 2
 Evaporation
1/ 2
2 m
Revap  5.83  10 AS   Pe
T 

– Pe is the equilibrium vapor pressure of the melt (torr)

– m is the gram-molecular mass
– T is the temperature (K)
– As is area of source
 The vapor pressure depends strongly on the
temperature (Claussius-Clapeyron equation)
– In order to have a reasonable evaporation rate (0.1-1
m/min), the vapor pressure must be about 1-10 mtorr
PVD
 PVD
 The velocity can be normalized to the
velocity at the center of the wafer
 PVD
 Corrections can be applied if the source is a
small, finite area
– If we now move the center of the wafer from the
perpendicular position, but tile it with respect to the
source, an extra term must be added

Revap
v cos k cos i
Nr 2
 Planetaries
 Wafer holders that rotate wafer position
during deposition to increase film
thickness uniformity across wafer and
from one wafer to another.
– Wobbling wafer holders increase step
coverage
 PVD
 Nonuniformity of evaporatant can occur
when angular emission of evaporant is
narrower than the ideal source
– Crucible geometry
– Melt depth to melt area ratio
– Density of gas atoms over the surface of the
melt
 Evaporation
 Evaporating alloys is difficult Because of the
differing vapor pressures.
– Composition of the deposited material may very
different from that of the target material
 The problem can be overcome by
– Using multiple e-beams on multiple sources
 This technique causes difficulties in sample uniformity
because of the spacing of the sources
– Evaporating source to completion (until no material is
left)
 Dangerous to do in e-beam system
 Evaporation
 Compounds are also hard to evaporate
because the molecular species may be
different from the compound composition
– Energy provided may be used to dissociate
compound.
– When evaporating SiO2, SiO is deposited.
Evaporation in a reactive environment
(flowing O2 gas near crucible during
deposition) helps reconstitute oxide.
 Evaporation
 Advantages  Disadvantages
– Little damage to the
wafer
– Deposited films are
usually very pure
– Limited step coverage
– Materials with low
vapor pressures ae
very difficult to
evaporated
 Refractory metals
 High temperature
dielectrics
– No in situ precleaning
– Limited step coverage
– Film adhesion can be
problematic
 Step-coverage
 Evaporation technique is very
directional due to the large
mean free paths of gas
molecules at low pressure.
 Shadowing of patterns and poor
step coverage can occur when
depositing thin films.
 Rotation of the planetary
substrate holder can minimize
these effects.
 Heating substrate can promote
atom mobility, improve step
coverage and adhesion.
 Shadow masking and lift-off are
processes where poor step
coverage is desirable.
 Other PVD Techniques
 Other deposition techniques include
– Sputter deposition (DC, RF, and reactive)
– Bias sputtering
– Magnetron sputtering
– Collimated and ionized sputter deposition
– Hot sputter deposition
 Sputtering
 Sputter deposition is done in
a vacuum chamber
(~10mTorr) as follows:
– Plasma is generated by
applying an RF signal
producing energetic ions.
– Target is bombarded by these
ions (usually Ar+).
– Ions knock the atoms from the
target.
– Sputtered atoms are
transported to the substrate
where deposition occurs.
 Sputtering
 Wide variety of materials can be
deposited because material is put into
the vapor phase by a mechanical
rather than a chemical or thermal
process (including alloys and
insulators).
 Excellent step coverage of the sharp
topologies because of a higher
chamber pressure, causing large
number of scattering events as target
material travels towards wafers.
 Film stress can be controlled to some http://www.knovel.com

degree by the chamber pressure and

RF power.
 Deposition conditions
 Temperature: Room to higher
 Pressure: 100mtorr
– compromise between increasing number of Ar
ions and increasing scattering of Ar ions with
neutral Ar atoms
 Power
– Heating of target material
 Low temperature metals can melt from
temperature rise caused by energy transfer from
Ar ions
 Sputter sources
 Magnetron
– Magnetic field traps freed electron near target
– Move in helical pattern, causing large number of scattering
events with Ar gas – creating high density of ionized Ar
 Ion beam
– Plasma of ions generated away from target and then accelerated
toward start by electric field
 Reactive sputtering
– Gas used in plasma reacts with target material to form compond
that is deposited on wafer
 Ion-assisted deposition
– Wafer is biased so that some Ar ion impact its surface, density
the deposited film. May sputter material off of wafer prior to
deposition for in-situ cleaning.
 Sputtering
 Advantages
– Large-size targets, simplifying
the deposition of thins with
uniform thickness over large
wafers
– Film thickness is easily
controlled by fixing the
operating parameters and
simply adjusting the deposition
time
– Control of the alloy composition,
step coverage, grain structure is
easier obtained through
evaporation
– Sputter-cleaning of the
substrate in vacuum prior to
film deposition
– Device damage from X-rays
generated by electron beam
evaporation is avoided.
 Disadvantages
– High capital expenses are
required
– Rates of deposition of some
materials (such as SiO2) are
relatively low
– Some materials such as
organic solids are easily
degraded by ionic
bombardment
– Greater probability to
introduce impurities in the
substrate because the former
operates under a higher
pressure 
 Salicide

http://www.research.ibm.com/journal/rd/444/jordansweet.html