Sputtered silicon nitride coatings for wear protection

Silicon nitride films were deposited by RF sputtering on 304 stainless steel substrates in a planar RF sputtering apparatus. The sputtering was performed from a Si3N4 target in a sputtering atmosphere of argon and nitrogen. The rate of deposition, the composition of the coatings, the surface microhardness and the adhesion of the coatings to the substrates were investigated as a function of the process parameters, such as: substrate target distance, fraction nitrogen in the sputtering atmosphere and sputtering pressure. Silicon rich coating was obtained for fraction nitrogen below 0.2. The rate of deposition decreases continuously with increasing fraction nitrogen and decreasing sputtering pressure. It was found that the adherence of the coatings improves with decreasing sputtering pressure, almost independently of their composition

Resistivity measurement of ZnO:AI films for solar cell

Aluminium doped Zinc Oxide films were deposited on glass slide by RF magnetron sputtering using a ZnO target mixed with A120J. All the films were growth in room temperature without intentional heating. The resistivity of the ZnO:AI films were measured using van der Pauw method in terms of the preparation conditions such as RF power, working pressure, deposition time, O2 content in sputtering gas and target-substrate distance. Resistivity of the deposited films shows the following behaviours: decreases with the increasing RF power and film thickness while increase with increasing target substrate distance, and O2 content in sputtering gas. Resistivity for films prepared in different working pressure decreases with the Argon pressure but increased after the optimal pressure of 45mTorr

Method for sequentially processing a multi-level interconnect circuit in a vacuum chamber

An apparatus is disclosed which includes a vacuum system having a vacuum chamber in which wafers are processed on rotating turntables. The vacuum chamber is provided with an RF sputtering system and a dc magnetron sputtering system. A gas inlet introduces various gases to the vacuum chamber and creates various gas plasma during the sputtering steps. The rotating turntables insure that the respective wafers are present under the sputtering guns for an average amount of time such that consistency in sputtering and deposition is achieved. By continuous and sequential processing of the wafers in a common vacuum chamber without removal, the adverse affects of exposure to atmospheric conditions are eliminated providing higher quality circuit contacts and functional device

Apollo communication systems support. Task 8b-RF sputtering system, task 8c-high ohms/square resistive films Final report

RF sputtering system and techniques for sputtering high ohms/square resistive films to form thin film resistors used in Apollo communication system

Pulsed high-voltage dc RF sputtering

Sputtering technique uses pulsed high voltage direct current to the object to be plated and a radio frequency sputtered film source. Resultant film has excellent adhesion, and objects can be plated uniformly on all sides

Magnetic properties of epsilon iron(III) oxide nanorod arrays functionalized with gold and copper(II) oxide

A sequential chemical vapor deposition (CVD) - radio frequency (RF)-sputtering approach was adopted to fabricate supported nanocomposites based on the scarcely investigated \u3b5-iron(III) oxide polymorph. In particular, \u3b5-Fe2O3 nanorod arrays were obtained by CVD, and their subsequent functionalization with Au and CuO nanoparticles (NPs) was carried out by RF-sputtering under mild operational conditions. Apart from a multi-technique characterization of material structure, morphology and chemical composition, particular efforts were dedicated to the investigation of their magnetic properties. The pertaining experimental data, discussed in relation to the system chemico-physical characteristics, are directly dependent on the actual chemical composition, as well as on the spatial distribution of Au and CuO nanoparticles. The approach adopted herein can be further implemented to control and tailor different morphologies and phase compositions of iron oxide-based nanomaterials, meeting thus the open requests of a variety of technological utilizations

Disorder-free sputtering method on graphene

Deposition of various materials onto graphene without causing any disorder is highly desirable for graphene applications. Especially, sputtering is a versatile technique to deposit various metals and insulators for spintronics, and indium tin oxide to make transparent devices. However, the sputtering process causes damage to graphene because of high energy sputtered atoms. By flipping the substrate and using a high Ar pressure, we demonstrate that the level of damage to graphene can be reduced or eliminated in dc, rf, and reactive sputtering processes

Method for sequentially processing a multi-level interconnect circuit in a vacuum chamber

The processing of wafer devices to form multilevel interconnects for microelectronic circuits is described. The method is directed to performing the sequential steps of etching the via, removing the photo resist pattern, back sputtering the entire wafer surface and depositing the next layer of interconnect material under common vacuum conditions without exposure to atmospheric conditions. Apparatus for performing the method includes a vacuum system having a vacuum chamber in which wafers are processed on rotating turntables. The vacuum chamber is provided with an RF sputtering system and a DC magnetron sputtering system. A gas inlet is provided in the chamber for the introduction of various gases to the vacuum chamber and the creation of various gas plasma during the sputtering steps

Modification of the zirconia ceramics by different calcium phosphate coatings:comparative study

The aim of this study was to characterize different calcium phosphate coatings and evaluate in vitro cell response of these materials to ceramics implants. The physical and chemical properties of calcium phosphate coatings formed by RF-magnetron sputtering of calcium phosphate tribasic, hydroxyapatite, calcium phosphate monobasic, calcium phosphate dibasic dihydrate and calcium pyrophosphate powders were characterized. Cell adhesion and cell viability were examined on calcium phosphate coatings using mesenchymal stem cells. The results of cytotoxicity measurements of the calcium phosphate coatings revealed that only the coating obtained by RF-magnetron sputtering of the calcium phosphate dibasic dihydrate and calcium phosphate tribasic powders possessed lower cell viability than the zirconia substrate. The coating formed by sputtering of the calcium phosphate tribasic powder demonstrated more cells adhered onto its surface compared with other calcium phosphate coatings