1、 Sputtering preparation
It is very important to keep the vacuum chamber, especially the sputtering system clean. Any residue formed by lubricating oil, dust and previous coating will collect water vapor and other pollutants, which will directly affect the vacuum degree and increase the possibility of film-forming failure. Short circuit or target arcing, rough film surface and excessive chemical impurity content are often caused by unclean sputtering chamber, sputtering gun and target. In order to adhere to the composition characteristics of the coating, it is necessary to clean and dry the sputtering gas (argon or oxygen). After the substrate is installed in the sputtering chamber, the air needs to be extracted to reach the vacuum required by the process. The shielding cover in the dark area, cavity wall and adjacent surface also need to be kept clean. When cleaning the vacuum chamber, we advocate using glass ball shot blasting to treat the dusty parts, together with compressed air to remove the early sputtering residues around the chamber, and then quietly polish the external surface with alumina impregnated sandpaper. After polishing the gauze paper, it is cleaned with alcohol, acetone and deionized water. Together, it advocates the use of industrial vacuum cleaner for auxiliary cleaning. The targets produced by Gaozhan metal are packed in vacuum sealed plastic bags,
Built in moisture-proof agent. When using the target, please do not touch the target directly with your hand. Note: when using the target, please wear clean and lint free maintenance gloves. Never touch the target directly with your hands
2、 Target cleaning
The purpose of target cleaning is to remove the dust or dirt that may exist on the surface of the target.
The metal target can be cleaned in four steps,
The first step is to clean with a lint free soft cloth soaked in acetone;
The second step is similar to the first step, cleaning with alcohol;
Step 3: clean with deionized water. After washing with deionized water, place the target in the oven and dry it at 100 ℃ for 30 minutes.
The cleaning of oxide and ceramic targets shall be carried out with “lint free cloth”.
The fourth step is to wash the target with argon with high pressure and low water gas after removing the dusty area, so as to remove all impurity particles that may form arc in the sputtering system
3、 Target device
In the process of target installation, Z important precautions are to ensure a good thermal conduction connection between the target and the cooling wall of the sputtering gun. If the warpage of the cooling stave is severe or the warpage of the back plate is severe, the target device will crack or bend, and the thermal conductivity from the back target to the target will be greatly affected, resulting in the failure of heat dissipation in the sputtering process, and the target will crack or miss
In order to ensure the thermal conductivity, a layer of graphite paper can be padded between the cathode cooling wall and the target. Please pay attention to carefully check and make clear the flatness of the cooling wall of the sputtering gun used to ensure that the O-ring is always in place.
Since the cleanliness of the cooling water used and the dust that may occur during the operation of the equipment will be deposited in the cathode cooling water tank, it is necessary to check and clean the cathode cooling water tank when installing the target to ensure the smooth circulation of cooling water and that the inlet and outlet will not be blocked.
Some cathodes are planned to have a small space with the anode, so when installing the target, it is required to ensure that there is no touch or conductor between the cathode and the anode, otherwise a short circuit will occur.
Refer to the equipment operator’s Manual for information on how to operate the target correctly. If there is no such information in the user manual, please try to install the device according to the relevant suggestions provided by Gaozhan metal. When tightening the target fixture, first tighten one bolt by hand, and then tighten another bolt on the diagonal by hand. Repeat this until all the bolts on the device are tightened, and then tighten with something.
4、 Short circuit and tightness inspection
After the completion of the target device, it is required to check the short circuit and tightness of the whole cathode,
It is proposed to determine whether there is a short circuit in the cathode by using a resistance meter
Row discrimination. After confirming that there is no short circuit in the cathode, leak detection can be carried out, and water can be introduced into the cathode to confirm whether there is water leakage.
5、 Target pre sputtering
Target pre sputtering advocates pure argon sputtering, which can clean the surface of the target. When the target is pre sputtered, it is advocated to slowly increase the sputtering power, and the power increase rate of ceramic target is 1.5W H / cm2. The pre sputtering speed of metal target can be higher than that of ceramic target block, and a reasonable power increase rate is 1.5W H / cm2.
In the process of pre sputtering, we need to check the arcing of the target. The pre sputtering time is generally about 10 minutes. If there is no arcing phenomenon, continuously increase the sputtering power
To the set power. According to experience, the acceptable Z high sputtering power of metal target is
25watts / cm2, 10watts / cm2 for ceramic target. Please refer to the setting basis and experience of vacuum chamber pressure during sputtering in the user’s system operation manual. Generally, it should be ensured that the water temperature at the outlet of cooling water should be lower than 35 ℃, but Z it is important to ensure that the circulating system of cooling water can work effectively
The rapid circulation of supercooling water takes away heat, which is an important guarantee to ensure continuous sputtering with high power. For metal targets, it is generally advocated that the cooling water flow is
20lpm water pressure is about 5gmp; For ceramic targets, it is generally advocated that the water flow is 30lpm and the water pressure is about 9gmp
6、 Target maintenance
In order to prevent short circuit and arcing caused by unclean cavity in the sputtering process, it is necessary to remove the sputter accumulated in the center and both sides of the sputtering track in stages,
This also helps users to continuously sputter at z high power density
7、 Target storage
The targets provided by Gaozhan metal are packaged in double-layer vacuum plastic bags. We advocate that users keep the targets, whether metal or ceramic, in vacuum packaging. In particular, the bonding targets need to be stored under vacuum conditions to prevent the oxidation of the bonding layer from affecting the bonding quality. With regard to the packaging of metal targets, we advocate that Z should be packaged in clean plastic bags
Post time: May-13-2022