Tin Deposition

Tin can be deposited by sputtering, thermal evaporation or e-beam evaporation in DTU Nanolab's cleanroom.

Sputtering of tin

We have sputtered tin in both the Sputter system (Lesker) and the Sputter-system Metal-Oxide (PC1). In the former we have also tested co-sputtering with Cu. In the latter we have more recent results (2025). The initial films were quite rough. Please contact staff for more information.

E-beam evaporation of tin

Sn was evaporated in the Alcatel e-beam evaporator, which is decommissioned, but has only been tested once in the E-beam evaporator (Temescal) which is currently in the lab. The test resulted in a rather uneven film (more resembling islands of Sn than a continuous layer) and since results with sputtering were more promising we did not fully develop the recipe (spring 2025).

Thermal evaporation of tin

Sn thermal evaporation has been tested in early 2025. The required power varied quite a lot from run to run so we do not have a fully automated reliable process. The resulting films were very rough.

Comparison of deposition methods

	E-beam evaporation (Temescal)	Thermal evaporation (Thermal Evaporator)	Sputter deposition (Lesker)	Sputter deposition (Sputter-system Metal-Oxide (PC1) and Sputter-system Metal-Nitride (PC3))
General description	E-beam deposition of Sn (line-of-sight)	Thermal deposition of Sn (line-of-sight)	Sputter deposition of Sn (some step coverage)	Sputter deposition of Sn (pulsed DC, HiPIMS and substrate heating available)
Pre-clean	Ar ion clean	none	none	RF sputter cleaning
Layer thickness	discuss with staff 1 nm to at least 100 nm	discuss with staff 1 nm to at least 50 nm	discuss with staff	discuss with staff 1 nm to at least 50 nm
Deposition rate	discuss with staff (on the order of 1-5 Å/s)	discuss with staff (on the order of 1-5 Å/s)	discuss with staff	discuss with staff (on the order of 1-2 Å/s)
Pre-clean	Ar ion bombardment	none	none	RF sputter cleaning
Batch size	Up to 4x6" wafers or Up to 3x8" wafers or smaller pieces	Up to 1x8" wafer or 1x6" wafer Up to 3x4" wafers smaller pieces	1x6" wafers or 1x4" wafers or smaller pieces	up to 10x6" wafers or up to 10x4" wafers or many smaller pieces
Allowed materials	Almost any that does not outgas See also the cross-contamination sheet	Almost any that do not degas. See also the cross-contamination sheet	Almost any that do not degas. See also the cross-contamination sheet	Almost any that does not degas at your intended substrate temperature. See cross contamination sheets for PC1 and PC3
Comment	Resulting films are rough	Resulting films are very rough	Resulting films are rough	Resulting films are rough