Sputtering

• Definitions
• Plasmas
– DC
– RF
• Sputter deposition
– DC
– RF
– Magnetron
– Bias
– Collimation
– IMP

Readings: Plummer sections 9.2.2.2

 Introduction

Sputtering
A process in which surface
particles (atomic or
molecular scale) are
physically knocked off or
ejected from a source
“target” by using energetic
gaseous ions in a plasma.
A physical vapour
deposition (PVD)
technique.
 Sputtering Process

• Momentum transfer from the incident atom to the

surface atoms in the target material
• At energy lower than the binding energy of the target
material (<5eV),
⇒ Reflection of bombarding species
• At much higher energies (>10 keV),
⇒ Impinging particles to be embedded in the target – ion
implantation
• At intermediate energies,
⇒ Lattice damage and sputtering
 Sputtering Energy
• Threshold energy for sputtering, Eth
U0
Eth =
γ (1 − γ )
where U0 = heat of vaporization, γ = energy transfer
parameter given by: 4 M 1M 2
γ=
(M 1 + M 2 )
2

where M1 and M2 are the mass of the sputtering ion and

sputtered material respectively

• γ reaches a maximum when M1 ~ M2

• Eth is typically in the range of 10 to 30 eV
 Sputtering Process

Ion implantation Sputtering

(Ohring)
 Sputter Yield
• Number of atoms sputtered from the surface per incident
particle, i.e.
# sputtered atoms
S=
# incident ion

• Factors affecting sputter yield:

– Mass of gas
– Mass of target
– Ion energy
– Angle between the
surface normal of the target
and the velocity vector of the
incident ion
(Campbell)
 Sputter Yield
• Ion energy ↑, sputter yield ↑ (up to a few tens of keV before
ion implantation occurs)
• Mass of target ↑, sputter yield ↓
• Generally, mass of bombarding
ion ↑, sputter yield ↑

(Campbell)
Sputter Yield

(Ohring)
 Sputtering System

Gas: provides sputtering

ions
Vacuum pump: maintain
low pressure environment
Power supply: creates a
large voltage drop
between electrodes
(target and substrate) to
initiate a plasma
Target: material to be
deposited

(Campbell)
 Plasma in Sputter System

• Mixture of neutral atoms, molecules, roughly equal

number of positive ions and free electrons, in a quasi-
neutral state

• Argon gas is
usually used as the
sputtering gas
because of its
chemical inertia to
the target material

(Plummer)
 Plasma Formation
1. Voltage is applied between the electrodes
2. Breakdown field of gas is exceeded, creating large
numbers of ions and free electrons
3. Electrons are accelerated towards the positively
charged anode and ions are accelerated towards the
cathode
4. Electrons are accelerated much faster due to their
small mass
5. Ions that strike the cathode generate secondary
electrons
6. Secondary electrons are attracted towards the anode
7. At high enough fields, electrons acquire enough
energy to ionize neutral atoms or molecules
8. Plasma is self-sustaining
 Reactions in the Plasma
Dissociation: e* + AB → A + B + e
Atomic Ionization: e* + A → A+ + e + e
Molecular Ionization: e* + AB → AB+ + e + e
Atomic Excitation: e* + A → A* + e
Molecular Excitation: e* + AB → AB* + e
Ionization
• Energy transferred > ionization potential (e.g. >15.7 eV for
Ar)
• Secondary free electrons and positive ions
Excitation (for about 10-8 sec) and returning to ground state
• Energy transferred < ionization potential (e.g. 11.5 eV < E
< 15.7 eV for Ar)
• Emission of visible light photons
 DC Glow Discharge

Cathode glow Crooke’s dark space Positive column

Cathode Anode
(target) (wafer)

Negative glow Faraday dark space Anode dark space

• Electrons interacting with atoms or molecules cause

excitations of core electrons into higher energy states
• When electrons return to their ground states, photons
are emitted
 DC Glow Discharge
Crooke’s dark space (cathode dark space / cathode sheath)
• Space charge region near the cathode which most of the
voltage drop in the system occurs
• Excess of positive ions and low concentration of electrons
• Few collisions between Ar atoms and electrons occur
• Electrons are accelerating but still have energies too low
to stimulate emission
• Region is dark

Negative glow
• Made up of argon plasma
• Photon emission from excited Ar atoms
• Voltage fairly constant throughout this region
 DC Glow Discharge
Cathode glow
• Light produced due to interaction between incoming ions
and cathode material

Faraday dark space

• Electrons have such high energies that they cause
activation rather than stimulate emission (>15 keV)

Positive column
• Relatively uniform emission

Anode dark space

• Anode acts as an electron sink, lowering electron
concentration and emission
 DC Glow Discharge
• Positive column and Faraday dark space are not necessary
for the operation of the discharge

• Shorten the anode-

cathode spacing by
moving the anode into
negative glow region

• Plasma potential, Vp, is

positive with respect to
the anode

(Plummer)
 Plasma Characteristics
• Both ions and electrons
from the plasma will
randomly strike the surface
and escape the plasma
• Electrons with their lighter
mass and higher mobility
will strike the surface more
often, causing an imbalance
in the ion and electron
currents
• An electric field develops
that opposes this imbalance
• Net DC current pass
through the circuit
(Campbell)
 RF Plasma
• If one or more electrodes are insulating (e.g. target is an
insulator), use a Radio Frequency (RF) plasma
• Assigned frequency: 13.56 MHz

(Plummer)
 RF Plasma
Insulators without RF:
• Positive Ar ions strike negatively charged insulator (target)
• Decrease applied negative potential until Ar ions are not
attracted to the cathode
• Voltage becomes less than that required to sustain glow
discharge, plasma quenches

Insulators with RF:

• Electrons have high enough mobility to keep up with the
changing field, but ions do not
• More electrons than ions are collected at each electrode, so
both surfaces become negatively charged
• Electrodes maintain a self-biasing steady-state (DC)
potential that is negative with respect to Vp
 RF Plasma Potential
• Induced negative biasing of both electrodes means
continuous sputtering throughout RF cycle
• Wafers will be sputtered at the same rate as the target for
symmetric electrodes
• From conservation of
current, 4
V1  A2 
=  
V2  A1 
where A1 and A2 is the
area of the top (target)
and bottom (wafer)
electrode, respectively

(Campbell)
 RF Plasma Potential
• Smaller electrode requires a higher RF current density to
maintain the same total current as the larger electrode
• Fields must be higher at the smaller electrode (target)
• Therefore, voltage drop
from the plasma to the
target (several hundreds
volts) is much larger than to
the substrate (tens of volts) V2

• Almost all the sputtering will V1

occur at the target electrode
• Wafer electrode can be
connected to chamber walls
(which are grounded), thus
increasing effective area
(Plummer)
 Sputter Deposition
Process parameters:
• Gas species
• Sputtering gas
pressure
• Background pressure
• Substrate
temperature
• DC voltage
• Substrate bias

Control parameters:
• Growth rate (Campbell)

• Film structure
• Surface morphology (step coverage or planarization)
Sputter Deposition System

Cluster system
• Sputter chambers
• Transfer module
• Wafer orienter
• Load lock
• Cooling station
• Vacuum pumps
• Wafer heaters
 Sputter Deposition System

• Load lock – minimize the amount of air and other

contaminants that will be introduced into the process
chamber
• Vacuum pumps – bring the pressure in the sputtering
chamber to about 10-8 torr
• Sputtering chamber – multiples chambers to hold
different targets which can be sputtered simultaneously
or sequentially without breaking vacuum
• Targets – mounted to the cathode to keep in contact with
a water-cooled backing plate
• Wafer heater – wafers can be heated up to 550°C,
improves step coverage during deposition
• Power supplies – DC power supplies up to 20 kW of
power, RF power supplies limited to ~3 kW
 Sputter Deposition
1. Use a DC or RF plasma in a parallel plate
arrangement
2. Put target on the cathode (-) and the substrate on the
anode (+)
3. Introduce a sputtering gas that will ionize positively
(typically Ar)
4. Ar ionizes, is accelerated to the target, and sputters
neutral target atoms
5. Sputtered target atoms travel to the substrate (at low
Ar pressure, sputtered atoms have fewer collisions
with Ar atoms – line of sight deposition)
6. Sputtered atoms arrive at substrate and implant,
bounce, diffuse a bit, or simply stick, depending on
their kinetic energies
Sputter Deposition Processes

secondary electron
sputter

ionize

resputter
adsorb
diffuse

(Plummer)
 Arrival Angle Distributions for Sputtered
Atoms
• Small or point source (target)
• Large target
• Wide emitted angular distribution
• Wider arrival angle distribution
• Narrow arrival angle distribution
• n closer to 1 in cosnθ distribution
• n >> 1 in cosnθ distribution
• Isotropic deposition
• Anisotropic deposition

target

(Plummer)
 Step Coverage

Better step coverage than

evaporative deposition but
worse than CVD

(Plummer)
 Step Coverage for High Aspect Ratio
Features
• Wide arrival angle distribution • Narrow arrival angle distribution
• Poor bottom coverage • Better bottom coverage

Lack of directionality makes filling of high aspect ratio

trenches and vias difficult
(Plummer)
 Process and Control Parameters
Process Parameters
• Gas species
– Affects growth rate
• Sputtering gas pressure – a few hundred mtorr
– Affects growth rate and energy of depositing atoms
• Background pressure and sputtering gas purity
– Affects film structure and purity
• Substrate temperature – hot, cold or uncontrolled
(modestly heated)
– Affects film structure and stress
• DC voltage
– Affects growth rate
• Substrate bias – grounded, positive, negative or floating
– Affects energy of depositing atoms
 Process and Control Parameters

• Ar pressure ↑, sputtering of target ↑, but sputtering of

film also ↑
• Higher Ar pressure → more collisions in the gas phase
→ shorter mean free path → isotropic arrival
• Heating can improve planarization in some cases, e.g.
Al on SiO2

Cross section of the time evolution of the typical step coverage for unheated sputter
deposition in a high aspect ratio contact
(Campbell)
 Effect of Sputtering Condition on Film
Structure
Thornton’s Zone Model
Sputter-deposited, thick (h~10µm),
refractory metal films
2 3

1
T

Reduced (homologous) temperature; T/Tm

where T = substrate temperature (K)
Tm = melting temperature (K)
 Effect of Sputtering Condition on Film
Structure
Zone 1
• Lowest substrate temperature, ion energy and high pressure
• Low adatom mobility of growing film
• Amorphous film, low mass density
Zone T
• If substrate temperature is raised or chamber pressure is
lowered
• Films have small grains
• Desirable region for microelectronics operation
Zone 2
• Increase substrate temperature
• Grain size increases
• Tall, narrow, columnar grains
Zone 3
• Highest temperature
• Large 3-D grains
 Reactive Sputter Deposition
• Reactive gas is introduced into sputtering chamber in
addition to Ar plasma
• Compound is formed by elements of that gas
combining with the sputtered material
• Plasma gives energy to the gas to be dissociated
– e.g. TiN formed by sputtering Ti in the presence of nitrogen
• Reaction occurs at the wafer surface or on the target
itself
– e.g. in TiO2 reactive sputtering, oxygen reacts with Ti on the Ti
target surface to form the oxide there, and then it is sputtered
onto the wafer surface
• Controlling the stoichiometry of reactively sputtered
films is sometimes difficult
 Magnetron Sputter Deposition
• In conventional DC and RF sputtering, efficiency of ionization
from energetic collisions between the electrons and gas
atoms is low
• Most electrons lose their energy in non-ionizing collisions or
are collected by the anode
• Few Ar atoms are converted to positive ions and few positive
ions strike the target
• In this technique, magnets are
used to increase the % of
electrons that take part in E
ionization events
• A magnetic field is applied at
right angles to the electric field
by placing large rectangular
magnets behind the target
(Campbell)
 Magnetron Sputter Deposition
• Traps the electrons near the target surface, causes them to
move in spiral motion until they collide with an Ar atom
• Ionization and sputtering efficiencies are increased
• Ion density of around 0.03% compared to 0.0001%
• Lower Ar pressure can be utilized → better film quality
• Planar and
cylindrical
magnetron
systems available
• Target is eroded
as material is
sputtered away as
shown on the right
Planar Magnetron Structure
 Bias Sputter Deposition
• Negative bias relative to the plasma is applied to the
wafer, electrically isolated from chamber walls
• Usually RF bias on substrate (-50 to -300V), DC/RF on
target (-700 to -2000V)
• Sputter etching of and deposition on the wafer may occur
concurrently
• Resputtered atoms deposit on sidewalls for more conformal
deposition
• Planarize the film as
pointed and sloped
features are being
sputtered more easily
than horizontal and
vertical surfaces
Potential distribution in bias sputtering systems.
 Effect of Substrate Bias
Substrate bias ⇒ more energetic deposited atoms

(Ohring) (Campbell)

Defect “annealing” (larger Better step coverage and

grain size) → ρ ↓ trench/via filling
 Collimation
• Plate of circular holes is placed between target and wafer
• Only atoms that are ejected within a small angle to the
normal of the target will reach the wafer
• Narrow arrival angle distribution across the wafer,
perpendicular to surface
• Collimation improves
trench/via filling
• Target utilization is
reduced, deposition
rate becomes low,
effective cost is
increased
• Used for contact and
barrier metal
deposition
Schematic diagram of collimated sputter deposition
system, showing atomic flux lines. (Plummer)
 Ionized PVD
• Also know as Ionized Metal Plasma (IMP)
• Inductively coupled RF antenna is placed around the
plasma region
• Ionized the sputtered atoms through collisions with
electrons in the plasma as they travel between target and
wafers
• DC or RF bias usually
applied to wafer holder
• Accelerate ionized
atoms, e.g. Al+, to wafer
surface
• Highly directional flux
• Improves trench/via
filling
• Problem – deposition of
Schematic diagram of ionized sputter deposition
atoms on RF coils system, showing atomic flux lines. (Plummer)
 Advantages and Disadvantages of
Sputter Deposition
Advantages
• More conformal than evaporative deposition (ED)
• Better thickness uniformity than ED
• Compatible with batch processing
• Easier stoichiometry control than ED
• Can be used for almost any material (unlike CVD)
• Arriving atoms have higher energies (vs ED)
– Higher effective surface diffusivity but can create subsurface
defects
Disadvantages
• Subsurface defects can be generated
• Sputtering and impurity gases are more likely to be
incorporated
Not good for epitaxial films, good for polycrystalline and amorphous films.