Vapour deposition
Vapour deposition are of two types:
1. Physical vapour deposition
2. Chemical vapour deposition
Physical vapour deposition:
Physical vapour deposition (PVD) describes a variety of vacuum
deposition methods used to deposit thin films by the condensation of a
vaporized form of the desired film material onto various work piece
surfaces (e.g., onto semiconductor wafers).
Metals and metal complexes are directly deposited on the
substrate as a film.
Michael Faraday used the term PVD in 1838.
It is more durable than chrome plating.
Physical vapor deposition coating is a product that is currently being
used to enhance a number of products, including automotive parts like
wheels and pistons, surgical tools, drill bits, and guns.
The current version of physical vapor deposition was completed in 2010
by NASA scientists at the NASA Glenn Research Center in Cleveland,
Ohio. This physical vapor deposition coating is made up of thin layers of
metal that are bonded together through a rig that NASA finished
developing in 2010. In order to make the coating, developers put the
essential ingredients into the rig, which drops the surrounding
atmospheric pressure to one torr (1/760 of our everyday atmosphere).
From there, the coating is heated with a plasma torch that reaches
17,540.33 degrees Fahrenheit. In the automotive world, it is the newest
alternative to the chrome plating that has been used for trucks and cars
for years. This is because it has been proven to increase durability and
weigh less than chrome coating, which is an advantage because a
vehicle's acceleration and fuel efficiency will increase. Physical vapor
deposition coating is gaining in popularity for many reasons, including
that it enhances a product’s durability
The coating method involves purely physical processes such as high-
temperature vacuum evaporation with subsequent condensation, or
plasma sputter bombardment rather than involving a chemical reaction
at the surface to be coated as in chemical vapour deposition.
PVD differs in that the precursors are solid, with the material to be
deposited being vaporised from a solid target and deposited onto the
substrate.
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
Common coatings applied by PVD are Titanium nitride, Zirconium nitride, Chromium
nitride, Titanium aluminum nitride
Disadvantages:
Temp. Is very high.
Low vacuum is needed.
Cooling of reactor is very difficult.
Safety of workers is major concern.
PVD are of following types:
1. Cathodic arc deposition: In which a high-power electric arc discharged at the target
(source) material blasts away some into highly ionized vapor to be deposited onto the
workpiece.
2. Laser ablation: In which a high-power laser ablates material from the target into a vapor.
3. Sputter coating: In which a glow plasma discharge (usually localized around the "target"
by a magnet) bombards the material sputtering some away as a vapor for subsequent
deposition.
4. Evaporation deposition: In which the material to be deposited is heated to a high vapor
pressure by electrically resistive heating in "low" vacuum.
5. Electron beam deposition:I n which the material to be deposited is heated to a high
vapor pressure by electron bombardment in "high" vacuum and is transported by diffusion to
be deposited by condensation on the (cooler) workpiece.
Chemical vapour deposition
How Does CVD Work?
Precursor gases (often diluted in carrier gases) are delivered into the reaction
chamber at approximately ambient temperatures. As they pass over or come
into contact with a heated substrate, they react or decompose forming a solid
phase which and are deposited onto the substrate. The substrate temperature
is critical and can influence what reactions will take place.
Coating Characteristics
CVD coatings are typically:
• Fine grained
• Impervious
• High purity
• Harder than similar materials produced using conventional ceramic
fabrication processes
CVD coatings are usually only a few microns thick and are generally deposited
at fairly slow rates, usually of the order of a few hundred microns per hour.
CVD Apparatus
A CVD apparatus will consist of several basic components:
• Gas delivery system – For the supply of precursors to the reactor
chamber
• Reactor chamber – Chamber within which deposition takes place
• Substrate loading mechanism – A system for introducing and removing
substrates, mandrels etc
• Energy source – Provide the energy/heat that is required to get the
precursors to react/decompose.
• Vacuum system – A system for removal of all other gaseous species
other than those required for the reaction/deposition.
• Exhaust system – System for removal of volatile by-products from the
reaction chamber.
• Exhaust treatment systems – In some instances, exhaust gases may not
be suitable for release into the atmosphere and may require treatment or
conversion to safe/harmless compounds.
• Process control equipment – Gauges, controls etc to monitor process
parameters such as pressure, temperature and time. Alarms and safety devices
would also be included in this category.
DIFFERENECE BETWEEN PVD AND CVD IS:
PVD: Common for these processes are that the material deposited is physically moved on
to the substrate. In other words, there is no chemical reaction which forms the material on
the substrate.
CVD: These processes exploit the creation of solid materials directly from chemical
reactions in gas and/or liquid compositions or with the substrate material. The solid material
is usually not the only product formed by the reaction. Byproducts can include gases, liquids
and even other solids.
SPUTTERING
Sputter deposition is a physical vapor deposition (PVD) method of depositing thin
films by sputtering. This involves ejecting material from a "target" that is a source onto a "substrate"
such as a silicon wafer. Resputtering is re-emission of the deposited material during the deposition
process by ion or atom bombardment. Sputtered atoms ejected from the target have a wide energy
distribution, typically up to tens of eV (100,000 K). The sputtered ions (typically only a small fraction
— order 1% — of the ejected particles are ionized) can ballistically fly from the target in straight lines
and impact energetically on the substrates or vacuum chamber (causing resputtering). Alternatively,
at higher gas pressures, the ions collide with the gas atoms that act as a moderator and move
diffusively, reaching the substrates or vacuum chamber wall and condensing after undergoing a
random walk. The entire range from high-energy ballistic impact to low-energy thermalized motion is
accessible by changing the background gas pressure. The sputtering gas is often an inert gas such
as argon. For efficient momentum transfer, the atomic weight of the sputtering gas should be close to
the atomic weight of the target, so for sputtering light elements neon is preferable, while for heavy
elements krypton or xenon are used. Reactive gases can also be used to sputter compounds. The
compound can be formed on the target surface, in-flight or on the substrate depending on the process
parameters. The availability of many parameters that control sputter deposition make it a complex
process, but also allow experts a large degree of control over the growth and microstructure of the
film.
USES:
Sputtering is used extensively in the semiconductor industry to deposit thin films of various materials
in integrated circuit processing. Thin antireflection coatings on glass for optical applications are also
deposited by sputtering. Because of the low substrate temperatures used, sputtering is an ideal
method to deposit contact metals for thin-film transistors. Perhaps the most familiar products of
sputtering are low-emissivity coatings on glass, used in double-pane window assemblies. The coating
is a multilayer containing silver and metal oxides such as zinc oxide, tin oxide, or titanium dioxide. A
large industry has developed around tool bit coating using sputtered nitrides, such as titanium nitride,
creating the familiar gold colored hard coat. Sputtering is also used as the process to deposit the
metal (e.g. aluminium) layer during the fabrication of CDs and DVDs.
Hard disk surfaces use sputtered CrO x and other sputtered materials. Sputtering is one of the main
processes of manufacturing optical waveguides and is another way for making efficient photovoltaic
solar cells.
