Specific Process Knowledge/Thin film deposition/Deposition of Silver

Silver can be deposited by e-beam or thermal evaporation. In the chart below you can compare the different deposition equipment.

	E-beam evaporation (Alcatel)	Thermal evaporation (Wordentec)	E-beam evaporation (PVD co-sputter/evaporation)	Sputter evaporation (PVD co-sputter/evaporation)	Sputter evaporation (Wordentec)
Batch size	Up to 1x4" wafers smaller pieces	6x6" wafers or 6x4" wafers or 24x2" wafers	4x6" wafers or 12x4" wafers or 12x2" wafers	4x6" wafers or 12x4" wafers or 12x2" wafers	6x6" wafers or 6x4" wafers or 24x2" wafers
Pre-clean	RF Ar clean	RF Ar clean	RF Ar clean	RF Ar clean	RF Ar clean
Layer thickness	10Å to 1µm	10Å to 0.5µm (0.5µm not on all wafers)	10Å to 1000Å	10Å to about 5000Å	10Å to about 3000Å
Deposition rate	2Å/s to 15Å/s	1Å/s to 10 Å/s	About 1Å/s	Depending on process paramterers	Depending on process paramterers (see logbook)

Thermal deposition of Silver - Process settings for thermal deposition of Silver in Wordentec