Can you sputter carbon?

Can you sputter carbon?

Carbon can be sputtered using a high vacuum magnetron-style sputter coater, such as the Safematic CCU-010 HV, but deposition rates are very low and the resulting carbon films tend to be in the form of diamond-like-carbon (DLC), which is non-conductive.

What are sputtering targets used for?

Sputtering targets are used to produce low-radiation coated glass – also known as Low-E glass – which is commonly used in building construction because of its ability to save energy, control light, and for aesthetics. Demands for renewable energy are on the rise.

What kind of material can be the target of sputtering process?

Basically, any metal or alloy, and a variety of compounds, can be sputtered. During sputtering, material from the sputter target is atomized by bombardment of ions or neutral particles.

What is carbon sputtering?

Sputter and carbon coaters are used to deposit a thin metal or carbon layer on the surface of a substrate.

What materials can be sputter coated?

A range of target materials are used including gold, gold-palladium, platinum and silver. Although gold is still a common sputtering metal, having the most effective electrical conduction characteristics, it does however, have the largest grain size and is not always suitable for high resolution coating.

How does a carbon coater work?

Carbon coating A carbon source – either in the form of a thread or rod is mounted in a vacuum system between two high-current electrical terminals. When the carbon source is heated to its evaporation temperature, a fine stream of carbon is deposited onto specimens.

What is a carbon coater?

Request Info. The JEOL Carbon Coater is a fully-automated carbon coater that applies a thin conductive carbon film on a sample surface. Applying this coating to a non-conductive sample is an effective preparation technique for eliminating charge-up artifacts for analysis in a scanning electron microscope.

How is argon ionized in sputtering?

Positively charged argon ions from the plasma are accelerated toward the negatively biased target (cathode), resulting in material being sputtered from the target surface.

What is the process of sputtering?

Sputtering is a physical process in which the vaporization occurs of a solid material by bombarding it by ion energy. This is a process widely used in the formation of thin films on materials, engraving techniques, erosion of white material and analytical techniques.

How does a sputter coater work?

Sputter coating is a physical vapor deposition process used to apply a very thin, functional coating on a substrate. The process starts by electrically charging a sputtering cathode which in turn forms a plasma causing material to be ejected from the target surface.

Why plasma is created in sputtering?

A plasma is created by ionizing a sputtering gas (generally a chemically inert, heavy gas like Argon). The sputtering gas bombards the target and sputters off the material we’d like to deposit. Ions can be generated by the collision of neutral atoms with high energy electrons.

Why is 13.56 MHz used?

In the middle we have the frequency 13.56 MHz. One of the standard frequencies used world wide for industrial, scientific, and medical uses. This frequency is used for a faster etching process, but has to be fine tuned for each piece of material that would be placed in the chamber.

Why is 13.56 MHz used in RF sputtering?

The RF sputtering is employed to sputter insulating targets. The insulating nature of the targets like Al2O3, Mg0 adds capacitance to the the circuit thereby impeding the formation of plasma. By operating at radio frequencies typically 13.56 MHz, we can reduce the impedance of the circuit.

What is a semiconductor target?

Semiconductor sputtering target application The sputtering target is used for the fabrication of the barrier layer and the packaging metal wiring layer. In the wafer manufacturing process, the target material is mainly used to make the wafer conductive layer, barrier layer, and metal grid.

How do you make a target sputter?

Another way to fabricate the sputtering target is to mix the powders of different metals and sinter the mixture at an elevated temperature under high pressure in a die of required dimensions. This technique of making the target or solid discs from powders is known as spark plasma sintering (SPS).