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Specific Process Knowledge/Thin film deposition/Deposition of Tungsten

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This page is written by DTU Nanolab staff

Tungsten deposition

Tungsten (W) can be deposited by e-beam evaporation and sputtering. However, in case of evaporation the process generates a lot of heat, so it is not easy to deposit films much thicker than 50-60 nm. Sputtering can be used without any particular issues. In the chart below you can compare the deposition equipment.

Evaporation of W

Sputtering of W


E-beam evaporation (Temescal) Sputter-system (Lesker) Sputter deposition ((Sputter-system Metal-Oxide (PC1) and Sputter-system Metal-Nitride (PC3)) ) Sputter coater (Sputter coater 03)
General description E-beam evaporation of W DC Sputtering of W DC and HiPIMS Sputtering of W DC Sputtering of W
Pre-clean Ar ion beam None RF bias on a substrate None
Layer thickness 10Å to 20nm* 10Å to 600nm 10Å to 600nm 10Å to 250nm
Deposition rate 0.5 Å/s to 1 Å/s about 1 Å/s about 1 Å/s configuration dependent
Batch size
  • Up to 4x6" wafers
  • Up to 3x8" wafers (ask for holder)
  • small pieces
  • Up to 1x4" wafers
  • Up to 1x6" wafer
  • small pieces
  • Up to 10x4" wafers
  • Up to 10x6" wafer
  • small pieces
  • Up to 1x4" wafers
  • small pieces
Allowed materials
  • Silicon
  • Silicon oxide
  • Silicon (oxy)nitride
  • Photoresist
  • PMMA
  • Mylar
  • SU-8
  • Metals
  • Silicon
  • Silicon oxide
  • Silicon (oxy)nitride
  • Photoresist
  • PMMA
  • Mylar
  • SU-8
  • Metals
  • Silicon
  • Silicon oxide
  • Silicon (oxy)nitride
  • Photoresist
  • PMMA
  • Mylar
  • SU-8
  • Metals
  • Silicon
  • Silicon oxide
  • Silicon (oxy)nitride
  • Photoresist
  • PMMA
  • Mylar
  • SU-8
  • Metals
Comments Substrate gets hot during deposition

(for a 60 nm film it rose above 123 C)

Wait for low base pressure before start (3-5 10-7 Torr)

Deposition rate is 0.107 nm/s for 150W and 3mTorr (Src3, DC) Deposition rate is 0.124 nm/s for 140W and 3mTorr (PC3, Src3 DC),

(0.04 nm/s using HiPIMS - PC3, Src3)

Note! Bad uniformity.

Deposition rate is 0.03 nm/s using big glass chamber.

Deposition rate is 0.2-0.9 nm/s (current dependent) using small glass chamber.

* For thicknesses above 20 nm talk to staff (write to thinfilm@nanolab.dtu.dk), as the heat and subsequent pressure rise means the deposition needs to be carried out in steps.