Film structure modification using high power pulsed magnetron sputtering with target voltage control during pulse-off period

2014 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 24560063
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Applied physics, general
• Research Institution: Seikei University
• Principal Investigator: NAKANO Takeo 成蹊大学, 理工学部, 准教授 (40237342)
• Project Period (FY): 2012-04-01 – 2015-03-31
• Keywords: 大電力パルススパッタリング / プラズマ電位 / 薄膜構造制御 / 微細電子放出源 / 銅薄膜

Outline of Final Research Achievements

In this research, we have studied the control of plasma potential in the High Power Pulsed Magnetron Sputtering (HPPMS) technique. By this, incident energy of ionized species, produced in the high density plasma of HPPMS, to the grounded substrate could be modified, resulting in the densified film structure with flat surfaces. At the beginning of this research, we intended to achieve this by modifying the target voltage waveform, but a more efficient technique, triode HPPMS, has been invented. By applying positive voltage to the third electrode, plasma potential could be controlled during both on and off periods of HPPMS, which extracted full benefits from the ionized plasma. The very flat surface structure could be achieved when Cu films were deposited by this method on water-cooled substrate. It was also found to be efficient for the fabrication of Mo micro emitters, which required normal incidence of depositing species as well as their energy control to suppress the film stress.

Free Research Field

薄膜工学