Specific Process Knowledge/Thin film deposition/Deposition of Silicon Oxide/Deposition of Silicon Oxide using Lesker sputter tool
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Sputter deposition of SiO2 using Sputter System (Lesker)
SiO2 can be sputter deposited with RF bias in the Sputter System (Lesker). You can see the deposition parameters used by others in the Process Log in LabManager. Below you will find deposition parameters and results of studies on the stress and surface roughness of the deposited films.
Surface roughness optimization
By Bjarke Thomas Dalslet @Nanotech.dtu.dk
The Lesker CMS 18 sputter system provides thin films of varying surface roughness. This roughness was verified to be dependent on the sputtered material, sputter mode (DC or RF) and the substrate bias strength. Other probable factors include sputter power and pressure. Below is a table of results for SiO2. Similar studies were carried out for Si and Ta.
The "From SiO target (RF sputter)" study was done on clean Si substrates. The sputter power was 157W and the pressure 3.5 mTorr using RF sputtering of a SiO target. The film thicknesses were around 42 nm.
From SiO2 target (RF sputter)
| Wafer nr | RF bias (W) | Reactive O2 (%) | Power(W) | Rq (RMS) (nm) | Thickness |
| 3 | 0 | 0 | 157 | 0.902 | |
| 6 | 5 | 0 | 157 | 0.499 | 44 |
| 7 | 10 | 0 | 157 | 0.142 | 42 |
| 8 | 15 | 0 | 157 | 0.422 | 40 |
Tensile stress in SiO2 films deposited at high temperature
In 2017 Radu Malureanu deposited SiO2 at 600 °C in order to obtain films with a high tensile stress. More information on this study can be found here.