Specific Process Knowledge/Thin film deposition/Deposition of Chromium

Chromium can be deposited by e-beam evaporation. It should be noted that Chromium does not melt but evaporates directly from the solid phase. Chromium can be sputter deposited aswell. In the chart below you can compare the different deposition equipment.

	E-beam evaporation (Alcatel)	E-beam evaporation (Leybold)	E-beam evaporation (Wordentec)	Sputter deposition (Wordentec)
Batch size	Up to 1x4" wafers smaller pieces	8x4" wafers or 5x6" wafers	24x2" wafers or 6x4" wafers or 6x6" wafers	24x2" wafers or 6x4" wafers or 6x6" wafers
Pre-clean	RF Ar clean	Ar ion bombartment	RF Ar clean	RF Ar clean
Layer thickness	10Å to 1µm	10Å to 0.5µm	10Å to 1µm	.
Deposition rate	2Å/s to 15Å/s	1Å/s to 5Å/s	10Å/s to 15Å/s	Depending on process parameters, see here.

Studies of Cr deposition processes

Uniformity of Cr layers - Uniformity of Cr layers deposited with different methods and settings

Sputtering of Cr in Wordentec - Settings and deposition rates