Calculation of gas heating in a dc sputter magnetron

Kolev, Ivan; Bogaerts, Annemie

doi:10.1063/1.2970166

Cited by 32 publications

(22 citation statements)

References 33 publications

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“…The increase in gas temperature and corresponding decrease in gas density in front of the target during a DCMS discharge, also known as gas rarefaction, has been extensively investigated during the last three decades both experimentally and theoretically [10,11,12,13,14]. The gas depletion in these models is assumed to be mainly through heating and corresponding thermal expansion, where the heating is due to collisions between the background gas and sputter-ejected target atoms as well as reflected sputtering gas atoms.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Transition between the discharge regimes of high power impulse magnetron sputtering and conventional direct current magnetron sputtering

Lundin

Brenning

Jädernäs

et al. 2009

Plasma Sources Sci. Technol.

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Transition between the discharge regimes of high power impulse magnetron sputtering and conventional direct current magnetron sputtering, 2009, PLASMA SOURCES SCIENCE and TECHNOLOGY, (18) AbstractCurrent and voltage have been measured in a pulsed high power impulse magnetron sputtering (HiPIMS) system for discharge pulses longer than 100 µs. Two different current regimes could clearly be distinguished during the pulses: (1) A high-current transient followed by (2) a plateau at lower current.These results provide a link between the HiPIMS and the direct current magnetron sputtering (DCMS) discharge regimes. At high applied negative voltages the high-current transient had the characteristics of HiPIMS pulses, while at lower voltages the plateau values agreed with currents in DCMS using the same applied voltage. The current behavior was found to be strongly correlated with the chamber gas pressure, where increasing gas pressure resulted in increasing peak current and plateau current. Based on these experiments it is here suggested that the high-current transients cause a depletion of the working gas in the area in front of the target, and thereby a transition to a DCMS-like high voltage, lower current regime.Confidential: not for distribution.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Transition between the discharge regimes of high power impulse magnetron sputtering and conventional direct current magnetron sputtering

Lundin

Brenning

Jädernäs

et al. 2009

Plasma Sources Sci. Technol.

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“…These collisions lead to heating of the gas followed by expansion (decrease in gas density in front of the target) in a process that is called gas rarefaction. It has extensively been investigated in magnetron discharges both experimentally and theoretically [56][57][58][59][60] during the last three decades. The loss of process gas results in a reduction of ions available for sputtering (often Ar ions) leading to a reduced deposition rate as well as a reduction of plasma density, which means that the desired IPVD properties will be lost.…”

Section: Gas Dynamicsmentioning

confidence: 99%

An introduction to thin film processing using high-power impulse magnetron sputtering

2012

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High-power impulse magnetron sputtering (HiPIMS) is a promising sputtering-based ionized physical vapor deposition technique and is already making its way to industrial applications. The major difference between HiPIMS and conventional magnetron sputtering processes is the mode of operation. In HiPIMS the power is applied to the magnetron (target) in unipolar pulses at a low duty factor (andlt;10%) and low frequency (andlt;10 kHz) leading to peak target power densities of the order of several kilowatts per square centimeter while keeping the average target power density low enough to avoid magnetron overheating and target melting. These conditions result in the generation of a highly dense plasma discharge, where a large fraction of the sputtered material is ionized and thereby providing new and added means for the synthesis of tailor-made thin films. In this review, the features distinguishing HiPIMS from other deposition methods will be addressed in detail along with how they influence the deposition conditions, such as the plasma parameters and the sputtered material, as well as the resulting thin film properties, such as microstructure, phase formation, and chemical composition. General trends will be established in conjunction to industrially relevant material systems to present this emerging technology to the interested reader.Funding Agencies|Swedish Research Council (VR)|623-2009-7348

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“…For example a particlein-cell/Monte Carlo analysis of a dc magnetron sputtering discharge by Kolev and Bogaerts [42] includes neutral plasma particles and self-consistently finds the influence of gas temperature on the discharge behavior. Kadlec [26] has used a Monte Carlo method to simulate the neutral particle flow during a HiPIMS pulse showing a strong rarefaction, heating of the background gas, and the formation of a shock wave.…”

Section: Appendix C Collision/diffusion Models Of the Neutral Fluxesmentioning

confidence: 99%

An ionization region model for high-power impulse magnetron sputtering discharges

Raadu¹,

Axnäs²,

Guðmundsson³

et al. 2011

Plasma Sources Sci. Technol.

113

176

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A time-dependent plasma discharge model has been developed for the ionization region in a high-power impulse magnetron sputtering (HiPIMS) discharge. It provides a flexible modeling tool to explore, e.g., the temporal variations of the ionized fractions of the working gas and the sputtered vapor, the electron density and temperature, and the gas rarefaction and refill processes. A separation is made between aspects that can be followed with a certain precision, based on known data, such as excitation rates, sputtering and secondary emission yield, and aspects that need to be treated as uncertain and defined by assumptions. The input parameters in the model can be changed to fit different specific applications. Examples of such changes are the gas and target material, the electric pulse forms of current and voltage, and the device geometry. A basic version, ionization region model I, using a thermal electron population, singly charged ions, and ion losses by isotropic diffusion is described here. It is fitted to the experimental data from a HiPIMS discharge in argon operated with 100 µs long pulses and a 15 cm diameter aluminum target. Already this basic version gives a close fit to the experimentally observed current waveform, and values of electron density n e , the electron temperature T e , the degree of gas rarefaction, and the degree of ionization of the sputtered metal that are consistent with experimental data. We take some selected examples to illustrate how the model can be used to throw light on the internal workings of these discharges: the effect of varying power efficiency, the gas rarefaction and refill during a HiPIMS pulse, and the mechanisms determining the electron temperature.

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Calculation of gas heating in a dc sputter magnetron

Cited by 32 publications

References 33 publications

Transition between the discharge regimes of high power impulse magnetron sputtering and conventional direct current magnetron sputtering

Transition between the discharge regimes of high power impulse magnetron sputtering and conventional direct current magnetron sputtering

An introduction to thin film processing using high-power impulse magnetron sputtering

An ionization region model for high-power impulse magnetron sputtering discharges

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