Spec.pdf

Specifications for Electron Beam Deposition System – 12/21/2016

Section 1. General Requirements

1.1 Scope. - This specification describes the minimum technical requirements and the minimum acceptable performance standards for a high vacuum electron beam deposition system to be installed by the contractor at the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL), Washington, DC. This system will be used by NRL personnel to fabricate thin film coatings on wafers or substrates under high vacuum conditions. The electron beam deposition system will be placed in a multiple user facility and must provide ease of operation and safety to those in the facility.

1.2 Installation Site. - The contractor shall install the system in Bldg. 250, Naval Research Laboratory, Washington DC 20375, at a specific location to be designated by the Contracting Officer's Representative (COR). The laboratory space will have 208/220 VAC, 3-phase, 30 Amp and 208/220 VAC, 3-phase, 100 Amp, 60 Hertz electrical power within a class 100 clean room. The contractor shall hook up the system to plumbing and electrical fixtures available in the designated location. The contractor shall install the system in a manner consistent with typical clean-room operating procedures.

1.3 Description and Primary System Components. - The electron beam deposition system is to be used to deposit films of high melting temperature materials. in high vacuum, upon conducting, insulating and semiconducting substrates. These films are to be subsequently lithographically patterned into various electronic devices. In order to reduce pump down time per cycle and minimize source and substrate heater contamination, the vacuum chamber is to consist of two separate sections. The lower source chamber is to be separated from the upper product chamber by a high vacuum isolation valve which would allow the sources to remain under vacuum during substrate loading. The system is to be installed within a Class 100 clean room, and must be compatible with the requirements of that site. It is intended for use by multiple users within that site, therefore it must be computer controlled via menu-driven software, can be monitored from a location outside the clean room, and be user friendly.

Complete mastery of use must be possible after one day of training.

Section 2. Main Chamber System Requirements

2.1 A batch loading vacuum chamber, designed to minimize material buildup and cleaning requirements.

2.2 A stainless steel hinged Bell jar of at least 20-inch-diameter.

2.3 An electric hoist with swing-out source tray to facilitate access of the e-beam gun for cleaning, maintenance as well as material source reloading and shield removal/cleaning.

2.4 At least one clear viewport mounted in the vacuum chamber to be protected from deposition coating by shutter of replaceable film and it is designed to assist in the source setup and sweep pattern program selection.

2.5 Substrate holder. The substrate holder dome should include a fixture that can support five 150mm SEMI-Standard wafers as well as insertable reducers to hold 3-in. or 4-in. wafers and blank inserts to hold wafer pieces. The dome should have the proper geometry in order to optimize lift-off process for all samples.

2.6 A port shall be provided for installation of a residual gas analyzer or for an alternate application.

2.7 An isolation gate valve shall be placed between the source area which houses the e-beam gun and ion source and the area which holds the substrate carrier. The valve provides vacuum isolation of the product chamber area where the substrates are carried. This allows faster mechanical pump down and production cycle exchanges of wafers. This is necessary to minimizes the exposure of hot sources to room humidity and atmospheric gas contamination on each cycle.

2.8 Both the product chamber and the bell jar shall be water cooled.

2.9 The system shall include an interchangeable variable angle fixture to permit user selected angle-of incidence while spinning during deposition.

2.10 Two sets of easily removable chamber shields (one installed and one spare).

2.11 Vendor shall provide an additional 2-3/4" conflat port on the side of the bell jar.

2.12 Source-to-Substrate Extension. This option shall allow to increase the source to substrate distance by 8” via a simple field retrofit. The proper substrate holder for five 6-inch wafers is to be included with this option to ensure the proper geometry in order to optimize lift-off process for all samples.

2.13 Five (5) step-down wafer inserts of 150mm-to-75mm, two (2), step-down wafer inserts of 150mm-to-100mm and three (3) 75mm front side wafer clip inserts must be included, to allow wafer fragments or parcels to be front side loaded, includes spare variety clips.

Section 3. E-beam gun source, controller and power supply

3.1 The e-beam source tray should include a multi-pocket electron beam gun with at least eight 15 cc pockets designed to prevent cross-contamination between pockets, a turret index controller for bottom drive, and should have a 10 kW rating.

3.2 A 6 kW constant voltage power supply shall be provided for operation of one electron beam source in the chamber, operated at 208/220 VAC at 60Hz.

3.3 All controls shall be mounted in an electronics cabinet.

3.4 At least one e-beam controller shall be provided to control the power supply, e-beam sweep program and multi-pocket turret.

3.5 A transformer kit shall be provided with 20 ft. lines.

3.6 Twenty (20) poco graphite 15cc source liners and two (2) tungsten 15cc source liners must be included in order to be able to swap different without cross contamination.

Section 4. Control System

4.1 The control system should control all the pumps. valves, drives, deposition sources, power supplies, the gas system, gauges and ion gun source. Multiple layer deposition control is to be provided by a crystal rate controller. Data logging capabilities must be available. The gauges shall be High Vacuum Active Inverted Magnetron gauges and Pirani controllers for high and low vacuum applications, or their equivalent.

4.2 The system shall be provided with a Process controller system based upon quartz crystal sensors having an RS232 computer interface, video display programming panel, dual sensor head and shutter and single source capability, as well as hand-held power controller and interface connectors. The performance shall be equivalent to an Inficon Model XTC/3 controller.

4.3 The control system shall provide for full automatic, manual and service modes of operation. The operator interface is via a personal computer running Wonderware (GUI) software, or its equivalent. It shall be housed in a standard 19" electronics rack, at least 6' high, on casters.

Section 5. Vacuum Pump System

5.1 The system shall be provided with heavy duty 8" cryogenic pump with integral regeneration capability, as an on-board CTI Model CT-8, or its equivalent. The pump shall be mounted on the source chamber plenum bellow the load lock gate valve. The base unit shall include a first and second stage with RS232 interface and two set point relays, microprocessor regeneration control and a remote keyboard display. It shall also allow the following options:

a) Automatic fast regeneration to reduces downtime and increases productivity

b) Consistent vacuum performance that adapts to changing process conditions with On-Board configurability

c) Water-cooled compressor

d) Silicon diode temperature indicator

e) 20ft. water cooled configuration kit

5.2 Roughing pump. The minimal capabilities of the roughing pump are described as a 20-cfm dry roughing pump, including a 20-inch long by 1.5 inch o.d. flexline connector.

5.3 Soft Rough and Vent. Vendor shall provide an option to both rough pump and vent the system softly.

Section 6. Ion Source

6.1 A 3 cm ion gun for pre-cleaning mounted substrates shall be provided, with power supply, fully integrated with gas control to the computer control systems for pre-clean process steps. The ion source shall be a Veeco Solus source, or its equivalent and controlled by the main control system.

Section 7. Residual Gas Analyzer System.

7.1 Vendor shall provide a quadrupole-based RGA attached to the vacuum system, and integrated into the computer-based control system with range of 1-100 AMU, with programmable set-points for up to six different gases. An RGA analysis step shall be available to enter into the process recipe to ensure that background gas conditions can be met prior to proceeding with the deposition. Software shall be provided that permits a full feature spectral analysis of background gases to be displayed on a PC.

Section 8. Consumable Spare Parts.

8.1 Consumable spare parts as identified and included for use with the main system and will include, spare emitter assembly, spare crucible assembly and lid, emitter rebuild parts, filaments, crystal monitor crystals, o-rings, high temperature bearings, view-port film, wafer clips, heater lamps, miscellaneous fuses and other hardware.

Extended Maintenance. Vendor shall provide an option for three-year extended maintenance beyond the warranty period.

Section 9. Training

9.1 Vendor shall provide one day of basic training to a Laboratory representative at the factory, previous to shipping. An additional day of training. following installation at NRL, shall be provided for five Laboratory representatives.

Section 10. Warranty

10.1 Vendor shall provide a twelve (12) month warranty from the date of installation acceptance at the NRL site, including all parts and labor and 24-hour response to breakdown.

10.2 Extended Maintenance. Vendor shall provide an option for three-year extended maintenance beyond the warranty period.

Section 11. Documentation

Vendor shall provide two copies, in both hard copy and electronic form, of the following:

a) Full operating instructions suitable for use in teaching new users.

b) Nitrogen, water, air and vacuum schematics.

c) Electrical wiring schematics.

d) Complete mechanical schematics suitable to guide future modifications and repairs (AutoCAD 2015 compatible files).

e) Trouble shooting manual for common servicing and repairs of electrical, mechanical and computer software problems.