11-0067-24 DRAFT SYSTEM SPECS.pdf

N0017324RDH01

NRL Dual Chamber Thin Film Sputter Deposition System

A dual-chamber sputter deposition system is required for deposition of dielectric and metallic thin films. The chambers shall be isolated yet interconnected to allow transfer of samples from one chamber to the other without exposure to atmosphere for multilayer film growth. A load lock is required to maintain vacuum of the deposition chambers upon loading and unloading samples. The equipment will be installed in a Class 100 clean-room located at the Naval

Research Laboratory, Washington, DC with 120 VAC - 208 VAC single and three-phase electrical power, compressed air, compressed dry nitrogen, and process chilled water utilities available. Used equipment and/or components will not be considered unless specified.

The following represent minimum performance specifications of the system.

1. Dielectric Chamber

1.1. High vacuum chamber/gun configuration having base pressure < 5e-8 Torr. Conflat-style metal component seals are preferred in the construction of this system. The chamber is to be constructed of electropolished 304 stainless steel.

1.2. System pumping. A minimum of 1200 L/s turbo pump chamber with suitable mechanical backing pump to achieve base and operating pressures as defined in 1.1 and 1.6. Dry backing pumps are required having 17 cfm or higher capacity. The pumping must be single panel switch or computer controlled for automatic start-up and shut-down and have automatic safe shutdown on loss of system power, over-pressure and over-temperature conditions. Horizontal turbo mount designs are preferred to minimize material and/or tooling from entering turbo rotor assembly. Cryopump systems are not acceptable as they are unable to efficiently pump helium and hydrogen gas. A gate valve between turbo and chamber is to be included to allow for continuous turbo operation while chamber is at atmospheric pressure. A nitrogen purge line is to be included to allow for dilution of oxygen or other reactive process gases to the pumping system. An automated venting procedure must be incorporated for safe venting of the main vacuum chamber and safe spin-down of the turbo pump. A manual vent port and valve shall be included.

1.3. Gun configuration. The chamber must be capable of utilizing up to six (minimum) sputter guns in a modular confocal geometry in a sputter-up configuration, all fully shielded (chimney and shutter on each) to prevent cross-contamination of target materials while allowing for co-deposition of thin films from multiple targets.

1.4. Sputter gun requirements. Sputter guns shall be of the conflat UHV type and capable of being added or removed from the chamber with appropriate blanking flanges. All guns must be water cooled to dissipate heat. Gun design must support flat circular target geometry that are not direct-cooled. Sputter guns shall be configured with modular magnet arrays allowing for balanced, unbalanced, and magnetic material deposition modes. Modifications to change the mode of operation must be done without removing the gun from the chamber. All guns shall be configured to allow process gas feed directly to any selected gun via VCR or similar fittings.

Guns must be capable of supporting a plasma using an iron target having minimum 3 mm thickness at operating pressure of 3 mTorr.

1.5. Sample stage. The sample stage and holder must accommodate a variety of substrate sizes, including a 1 x 1 cm square x 0.1 cm thick substrate up to standard thickness 200 mm

DIA silicon wafer. Sample mounts should be provided to attach 4 inch DIA, 150 mm and 200 mm standard thickness silicon wafers.

The stage must be capable of implementing continuous rotation (0 – 20 RPM) to assist in film thickness uniformity. It must be capable of programmable sample heating from a radiant source

(quartz lamps) from 50C - 800C in vacuum and in presence of 3 mTorr oxygen with +/- 1 degree

C temperature stability. (Stage temperature will be calibrated using optical pyrometry of the sample holder platen at the installation site.) The stage is to be electrically isolated from the chamber to allow RF and DC bias capability while rotating / heating / depositing. An RF power supply and matching network shall be included to allow for backsputtering and RF bias during growth. A DC power supply is to be provided to allow for programmable negative and positive

DC bias (-150 to +150 V DC) to the sample holder and stage. An integrated switch under software control is to be included to allow automatic change of RF and DC bias to the sample holder and stage. Control of temperature, rotation, and RF back-sputter and DC bias shall be computer controlled.

1.6. Computer controlled DC and RF stage bias. The system must provide separate and independent RF and DC bias capability to the sample holder and stage. RF power is used to ignite a plasma used in pre-cleaning the substrate in-situ and prior to deposition. The power supply should be capable of producing up to 100W of RF power with accompanying tuning network. The DC power supply should must be capable of providing a computer programmable

DC bias during deposition in the range of -150 to +150 VDC. The sample holder and stage design should minimize arcing during operation and the system electronics must withstand arcing events with no damage. Current limit of the DC supply to 1 mA or less is required to minimize arcing damage. A computer-controlled switch is to be supplied to select either DC or

RF operation.

1.6.1. DC voltage differential requirement. (Option.) During deposition, the system software must be capable of maintaining a constant DC difference between the sample holder/stage and any selected sputter gun to allow for precise film stress control.

1.7. Process gas and pressure control. A minimum of four metal-sealed mass flow controllers configured for gas and full scale for flow rates as follows: Ar: 100 sccm; O2: 20 sccm; N2: 20 sccm; N2: 5 sccm. Gas fittings should be VCR type. Argon gas is to be delivered directly to one or more sputter guns selected by computer control. O2, N2, and other reactive gases shall be delivered through a common manifold to the chamber in proximity to the sample stage to prevent target poisoning. Automatic downstream pressure control by use of throttle or butterfly valve mounted in front of main turbo pump in combination with capacitance manometer pressure readout is required. Active pressure control range: 0.50 mTorr – 30.00 mTorr

(minimum) with accuracy of 0.1 mTorr at Ar flow within the range of 1 – 100 sccm. Process pressure readout is to 0.01 mTorr resolution is required.

1.8. Sputter gun power supplies. The dielectrics chamber shall be configured with a minimum of one independent RF power supply and one independent pulsed DC power supply, with additional switchboxes to allow for delivery of RF power up to 4 separate guns and delivery of PDC power to one of three separate sputter guns. The supplies shall be configured to allow for co-deposition of up to two separate targets materials within the dielectric chamber. The RF power supply must include an automated matching network to minimize reflected RF power to the source and have a minimum power rating of 300W. The pulsed DC supply must have a minimum power rating of 1.5 kW with variable frequency settable from front panel switches.

The power supplies must be be controlled by both front panel and computer interface.

1.9. Chamber viewing. The system shall include a shuttered view port with line of sight to sample stage to allow for viewing during deposition and sample transfer. If ambient light is not sufficient to view sample transfer, an integrated chamber light shall be included.

1.10. Sample shutter. A computer-controlled sample shutter that operates independent of sputter gun shutters shall be included and is to be operable when deposition occurs from confocal sputter guns.

1.11. Quartz crystal monitor. A quartz crystal monitor shall be included to allow for calibration of the deposition rate of any of the guns. The monitor may be mounted on a retractable arm to remove interference during deposition to user substrates.

1.12. Restriction of optical position sensing within chamber. Optical sensors within the chamber used for position detection shall be restricted to prevent continual film deposition from corrupting the sensor performance.

1.13. Normal incidence sputter gun. (Option). The Contractor shall provide a UHV sputter gun to be mounted allowing for normal incidence sputtering to the sample. (That is, sputter target and sample are aligned parallel during deposition.) The location of the gun shall not interfere with film uniformity of confocally mounted sputter guns. It is required to have variable distance between the sputter gun target and sample implemented through z-motion of the stage to achieve sample-target distance of 2 ¾ inches or less. The shutter associated with this gun must move laterally (radially) over the gun to minimize sample-target distance. Multiple gun deposition is not required when operating the normal-incidence gun. The gun shall be capable of supporting a plasma using an iron target having minimum 3 mm thickness. Deposition uniformity of this gun must be +/- 5% over a 3 inch diameter. Off-center mounting is acceptable to improve uniformity.

1.14 Process gas to gun valving. The Contractor shall provide automated valving to allow gas delivery to any combination of sputter guns within the dielectric chamber selected under software control.

2. Metals Deposition Chamber

2.1. High vacuum chamber/gun configuration shall have base pressure of < 5e-8 Torr. Conflat-style metal component seals are preferred in the construction of this system. The chamber is to be constructed of electropolished 304 stainless steel.

2.2. System pumping. The Contractor shall provide a minimum of 1200 L/s turbo pump chamber with suitable mechanical backing pump to achieve base and operating pressures as defined in 1.1 and 1.6. Dry backing pumps are required having 17 cfm or higher capacity. The pumping must be computer controlled for automatic start-up and shut-down and have automatic safe shutdown on loss of system power, over-pressure and over-temperature conditions.

Horizontal turbo mount designs are preferred to minimize material and/or tooling from entering turbo rotor assembly. Cryopump systems are not acceptable as they are unable to efficiently pump helium and hydrogen gas. A gate valve between turbo and chamber shall be included to allow for continuous turbo operation while chamber is at atmospheric pressure. A nitrogen purge line is to be included to allow for dilution of oxygen or other reactive process gases to the pumping system. An automated venting procedure must be incorporated for safe venting of the main vacuum chamber and safe spin-down of the turbo pump. A manual vent port and valve shall be included.

2.3. Gun configuration. The chamber shall be capable of utilizing up to six (minimum) sputter guns in a modular confocal geometry in a sputter-up configuration, all fully shielded (chimney and shutter on each) to prevent cross-contamination of target materials while allowing for co-deposition of thin films from multiple targets.

2.4. Sputter gun requirements. Sputter guns shall be of the conflat UHV type and capable of being added or removed from the chamber with appropriate blanking flanges. All guns must be water cooled to dissipate heat. Gun design must support flat circular target geometry that are not direct-cooled. Sputter guns shall be configured with modular magnet arrays allowing for balanced, unbalanced, and magnetic material deposition modes. Modifications to change the mode of operation must be done without removing the gun from the chamber. All guns shall be configured to allow process gas feed directly to any selected gun via VCR or similar fittings.

Guns shall be capable of supporting a plasma using an iron target having minimum 3 mm thickness at operating pressure of 3 mTorr.

2.5. Sample stage. The sample stage and holder must accommodate a variety of substrate sizes, including a 1 x 1 cm square x 0.1 cm thick substrate up to standard thickness 200 mm

DIA silicon wafer. Sample mounts should be provided to attach 4 inch DIA, 150 mm and 200 mm standard thickness silicon wafers.

The stage must be capable of implementing continuous rotation (0 – 20 RPM) to assist in film thickness uniformity. It must be capable of programmable sample heating from a radiant source

(quartz lamps) from 50C - 800C in vacuum and in presence of 3 mTorr oxygen with +/- 1 degree

C temperature stability. (Stage temperature will be calibrated using optical pyrometry of the sample holder platen at the installation site.) The stage is to be electrically isolated from the chamber to allow RF and DC bias capability while rotating / heating / depositing. An RF power supply and matching network shall be included to allow for backsputtering and RF bias during growth. A DC power supply shall be provided to allow for programmable negative and positive

DC bias (-150 to +150 V DC) to the sample holder and stage. An integrated switch under software control is to be included to allow automatic change of RF and DC bias to the sample holder and stage. Control of temperature, rotation, and RF back-sputter and DC bias shall be computer controlled.

2.6. Computer controlled DC and RF stage bias. The system must provide separate and independent RF and DC bias capability to the sample holder and stage. RF power is used to ignite a plasma used in pre-cleaning the substrate in-situ and prior to deposition. The power supply should be capable of producing up to 100W of RF power with accompanying tuning network. The DC power supply shall be capable of providing a computer programmable DC bias during deposition in the range of -150 to +150 VDC. The sample holder and stage design should minimize arcing during operation and the system electronics must withstand arcing events with no damage. Current limit of the DC supply to 1 mA or less is required to minimize arcing damage. A computer-controlled switch is to be supplied to select either DC or RF operation.

2.6.1. DC voltage differential requirement. (Option.) During deposition, the system software must be capable of maintaining a constant DC difference between the sample holder/stage and any selected sputter gun to allow for precise film stress control.

2.7. Process gas and pressure control. A minimum of four metal-sealed mass flow controllers configured for gas and full scale for flow rates as follows: Ar: 100 sccm; O2: 20 sccm; N2: 20 sccm; N2: 5 sccm. Gas fittings should be VCR type. Argon gas shall be delivered directly to one or more sputter guns selected by computer control. O2, N2, and other reactive gases shall be delivered through a common manifold to the chamber in proximity to the sample stage to prevent target poisoning. Automatic downstream pressure control by use of throttle or butterfly valve mounted in front of main turbo pump in combination with capacitance manometer pressure readout is required. Active pressure control range: 0.50 mTorr – 30.00 mTorr (minimum) with accuracy of 0.1 mTorr at Ar flow within the range of 1 – 100 sccm.

Process pressure readout is to 0.01 mTorr resolution is required.

2.8. Sputter gun power supplies. The metals chamber shall be configured with minimum three independent DC power supply and one pulsed DC power supply and a 4-way switchbox to allow for delivery of PDC power to one (each) of four sputter guns. The power supplies shall be configured to allow for co-deposition of up to three separate target materials within the metals chamber. The DC supplies must have a minimum power rating of 600W. The pulsed DC supply must have a minimum power rating of 1.5 kW with variable frequency settable from front panel switches. The power supplies shall be controlled by both front panel and computer interface.

2.9. Chamber viewing. The system must include a shuttered view port with line of sight to sample stage to allow for viewing during deposition and sample transfer. If ambient light is not sufficient to view sample transfer, an integrated chamber light must be included.

2.10. Sample shutter. A computer-controlled sample shutter that operates independent of sputter gun shutters must be included and is to be operable when deposition occurs from confocal sputter guns.

2.11. Quartz crystal monitor. A quartz crystal monitor shall be included to allow for calibration of the deposition rate of any of the guns. The monitor may be mounted on a retractable arm to remove interference during deposition to user substrates.

2.12 Restriction of optical position sensing within chamber. Optical sensors within the chamber used for position detection are restricted to prevent continual film deposition from corrupting the sensor signal performance.

2.13 RF power supply. (Option). The vendor shall provide one additional RF power supply for use on either a confocal or normal-incidence sputter gun. The RF power supply must include an automated matching network to minimize reflected RF power to the source and have a minimum power rating of 300W and be integrated to the system control software.

2.14 Normal incidence sputter gun. (Option). The Contractor shall provide a UHV sputter gun to be mounted allowing for normal incidence sputtering to the sample. (That is, sputter target and sample are aligned parallel during deposition.) The location of the gun must not interfere with film uniformity of confocally mounted sputter guns. It is required to have variable distance between the sputter gun target and sample implemented through z-motion of the stage to achieve sample-target distance of 2 ¾ inches or less. The shutter associated with this gun must move laterally (radially) over the gun to minimize sample-target distance. Multiple gun deposition is not required when operating the normal-incidence gun. The gun must be capable of supporting a plasma using an iron target having minimum 3 mm thickness. Deposition uniformity of this gun must be +/- 5% over a 3 inch diameter. Off-center mounting is acceptable to improve uniformity.

2.15 Process gas to gun valving. (Option). The Contractor shall provide automated valving to allow gas delivery to any combination of sputter guns within the dielectric chamber selected under software control.

3. Load Lock Chamber

A separate chamber for loading and unloading samples is required. The load-lock chamber must have a full range vacuum gauge with turbo and mechanical backing pump independent of those used to support the dielectric and metals deposition chambers. It must be capable of achieving pressure < 1e-5 Torr within 5 minutes of the pump-down start sequence and venting to atmosphere within 5 minutes of vent start sequence. Chamber pump-down and vent sequences shall be automated through one-button manual control or computer interface. The chamber is to be mounted to allow sample transfer to either the metals or dielectrics deposition chamber using one or two sample transfer arms. A two-position (minimum) sample cassette is to be provided to allow multiple sample transfer. UHV compatible gate valves isolating the load lock chamber to the dielectrics and metals chambers are required. Manual operation of the sample transfer arm(s) is preferred.

4. Computer and System Control.

A computer interface shallbe supplied to allow operational control of the sputter deposition system based on Windows 10 or later operating system. Either one computer per chamber or one computer for both chambers is acceptable.

4.1. USB Port and Ethernet connectivity. The computer(s) must have minimum one accessible USB interface port for transfer of data to and from the computer. The computer(s) must be capable of direct or wireless connection to the customer’s Ethernet network. If direct connection is chosen, the customer must be capable of assigning an internet IP address in a manner that will not conflict with operation of the system. If wireless is used to connect to the customer’s Ethernet network, the computer must be capable of operating in the WPA2

Enterprise communication protocol.

4.2. Control Software Requirements. The computer(s) and software interface must be provide:

- integrated control of all sputter gun power sources and switches,

- integrated control of all process gas lines and mass flow controllers, and gas line valves

- allow for control of system pressure

- integrated control of sample rotation (on/off).

- integrated control of sample temperature in degrees C

- store and run processes to allow multiple layered film growth within each chamber

- automatic shut-down of RF, PDC, or DC power supplies if plasma is not detected

4.3. Level access control. The control software must allow for minimum of three levels of system access determined by username and/or password level provided to the user.

4.3.1. Service Level. The software shallallow for configuration of system operations and components, manual system operation, user account controls, recipe editing, and execution of process recipes.

4.3.2. Engineer Level. The software shall allow for editing and writing of user recipes based on the system configuration and execution of process recipes.

4.3.3. User Level. The software shall allow for the execution of previously defined recipes.

4.4. Datalogging. The software shall allow for recording of important system parameters during execution of process recipes.

4.5. Offline software emulator. The ability to create deposition recipes offline and on at least one office-based computer shall be provided.

5. System floor dimensions. The system chamber and electronics must be capable of operating within a contiguous 17 foot x 6 foot rectangular area. Transfer arm extensions must operate within this area. Chillers, pumps, and compressed gas bottles will be located in a utility corridor and will not be located within this area.

6. Sputter targets. (Option). The Contractor shall provide sputter targets appropriate for use in the sputter guns.

6.1. Metal targets. Target selection will be made at time of award but vendor must offer pricing for aluminum, titanium, copper, silver, iron, nickel, cobalt, Co50Fe50 (atomic percent), Ni80Fe20

(atomic percent), zirconium, niobium, hafnium, ruthenium, tantalum, and tungsten.

6.2. Dielectric targets. Target selection will be made at time of award but vendor must offer pricing for boron, carbon, silicon, germanium, silicon dioxide (SiO2), aluminum oxide (Al2O3), aluminum nitride (AlN), magnesium difluoride (MgF2), silicon carbide (SiC), and tungsten carbide (WC). Dielectric targets shall be bonded to a copper base to allow for high heat conduction to the water-cooled sputter gun.

7. Spare components.

7.1. Spare replacement sputter guns for confocal deposition. (Option). The Contractor shall provide additional replacement sputter guns to be used by the customer in case of damage of the original guns located in any of the confocal deposition positions.

7.2. Spare replacement chimney and shutter hardware. (Option) The Contractor shall supply additional chimney and shutter hardware to allow for minimal downtime in the cleaning of these components.

7.3. Spare stage heater hardware. (Option). The vendor will supply spare heating lamps and associated transparent windows that may fail or become coated during the course of operation.

7.4. Spare backing pumps. (Option). Spare backing pumps that are drop-in replacements for use in pumping dielectric or metals chambers shall be provided.

7.5. Spare Magnets. (Option). The vendor shall provide replacement magnets for up to 5 sputter guns.

7.6. Spare sample mounting plates (Option). The Contractor shall provide pricing for additional mounting plates for 200 mm DIA silicon wafers, 150 mm DIA silicon wafers, 4 inch

DIA silicon wafers, and piece parts that are clamp mounted.

8. Pulsed DC power supply. (Option). The Contractor shall provide itemized cost for additional pulsed DC power supplies to be incorporated to either the dielectrics or metals deposition chambers.

9. RF power supply. (Option). The vendor shall provide itemized cost for additional RF power supplies to be incorporated to either the dielectrics or metals deposition chambers.

10. DC power supply. (Option). The Contractor shall provide itemized cost for additional DC power supplies to be incorporated to either the dielectrics or metals deposition chambers.

11. Residual Gas Analyzer. (Option). A 100 AMU residual gas analyzer (RGA) capable of operation during deposition is required (nominally 3 mTorr process gas pressure). The RGA shall be mountable to either metals or dielectrics chamber and operated via computer control.

Both metals and dielectrics chamber shall be configured with 2.75” conflat gate valves on accessible ports to allow for easy connection of the RGA system to the selected deposition chamber.

12. Inert gas purifier. (Option). Point of use gas purifiers shall be configured at argon and nitrogen process gas inlets. Purifiers shall be of the Mott MGP inert gas series or equivalent providing purity of less that 100 PPT for incoming gas argon or nitrogen gas purity of 99.999% or higher and capable of regeneration. Impurity gasses to be removed are CO, CO2, H2, H2O, O2 minimum.