Specific Process Knowledge/Thin film deposition/Deposition of Nickel

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Nickel deposition

Nickel can be deposited by e-beam evaporation, sputtering or electroplating. In the chart below you can compare the different deposition equipment.

	E-beam evaporation (Temescal)	E-beam evaporation (Wordentec)	Sputter deposition (Lesker)	Sputter deposition (Sputter-system Metal-Oxide (PC1) and Sputter-system Metal-Nitride (PC3))	Electroplating (Electroplating-Ni)
General description	E-beam deposition of Nickel	E-beam deposition of Nickel	Sputter deposition of Nickel	Sputter deposition of Nickel	Electroplating of Nickel
Pre-clean	Ar ion bombardment		RF Ar clean	RF Ar clean	None
Layer thickness	10 Å to 1 µm *	10 Å to 1 µm *	10 Å to 5000 Å **	10 Å to 5000 Å **	~ 20 µm to ~ 1000 µm
Deposition rate	2-10 Å/s	10-15 Å/s	Depends on process parameters, about 1 Å/s	Depends on process parameters, at least ~ 4 Å/s, see conditions here	~ 10-250 Å/s
Batch size	Up to 4x6" wafers Up to 3x8" wafers (ask for holder) Many smaller pieces	24x2" wafers or 6x4" wafers or 6x6" wafers	Pieces or 1x4" wafer or 1x6" wafer	Up to 10x4" or 6" wafers Many smaller pieces	1x2" wafer or 1x4" wafer or 1x6" wafer
Allowed materials	Silicon Silicon oxide Silicon (oxy)nitride Photoresist PMMA Mylar Metals See also the cross-contamination sheet	Silicon Silicon oxide Silicon nitride Silicon (oxy)nitride Photoresist PMMA Mylar SU-8	Almost any that do not outgas.	Almost any that do not outgas. Check the cross-contamination sheet in Labmanager.	Base materials: Silicon Polymers with Tg > 75°C Metals (bulk) Cross-linked or hard baked resists supported by one of the above mentioned materials Seed metals: NiV (75 - 100 nm recommended) Ti (~5 nm) + Au (75-100 nm recommended) Cr (~5 nm) + Au (75-100 nm recommended) TiW Cr
Comment		Stress in Wordentec Ni films: study here.		May use high-strength magnet for deposition.	May use high-strength magnet for deposition	Sample must be compatible with plating bath (pH = 3,65 and T = 52°C). Seed metal necessary.

* To deposit a cumulative thickness above 600 nm permission is required from metal@nanolab.dtu.dk to ensure enough material is present in the machine

** To deposit a cumulative thickness above 200 nm permission is required from metal@nanolab.dtu.dk to ensure enough material is present in the machine

Quality control of e-beam evaporated Ni films

Quality control (QC) for Wordentec

QC Recipe:	Process 5
Deposition rate	10 Å/s
Thickness	100 nm
Pressure	Below 4*10^-6 mbar

QC limits	Wordentec
Measured average thickness (Å)	± 10 %
Lowest accepted deposition rate (Å/s)	6 Å/s

Thickness is measured in 5 points with a stylus profiler.

Quality control (QC) for the Temescal

QC Recipe:	Standard recipes/Ni
Deposition rate	10 Å/s
Thickness	100 nm
Pressure	Below 1*10^-6 mbar

QC limits	Temescal
Deposition rate deviation	± 20 %
Measured average thickness	± 10 %
Thickness deviation across a 4" wafer	± 5 %

Thickness is measured in 5 points with a stylus profiler.
Additionally we examine the newly deposited films for particles using the particle scanner (if available, otherwise we use the Jenatech microscope in darkfield mode) and we monitor the sheet resistance of the Ti/Au films.