Sputter Deposition Cluster Tool

• Subject Area: Materials Engineering
• Term: Funded in 2020
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 431751377

For the fabrication of memristive devices an efficient PVD system for research and pilot productions is requested. The system is intended to enable the sputter deposition of various magnetic and non-magnetic materials, as well as to be suitable for reactive sputtering processes of oxide and nitride layers. For this purpose, the system should be equally usable for conductive and non-conductive / insulating, magnetic and non-magnetic substrates and substrate materials. Specifically, a system is being requested with 5 independent vacuum chambers: one load look chamber, one vacuum robotic transfer chamber, 2 sputtering chambers with a total of 6 sputtering sources (one used for research projects and the second for pilot production), oxidation chamber for tunnel barriers with integrated RF bias for substrate cleaning. The process direction should be in the sputter-down configuration. A dedicated turbomolecular pumping system for each chamber is desired. The layer deposition should be possible by confocal magnetron sputtering sources with DC, pulsed DC and RF supply. A controllable process gas inlet and manipulatable 6-inch substrate stages (rotating, heating, cooling, RF bias, gradient aperture) are also requested to develop novel functional layers for memristive devices. Individually adjustable target / substrate spacing is desired to allow the deposition of thin layers with a good homogeneity over the wafer. Removable stainless steel fenders are designed to help reduce unwanted coating on the inner process chamber surfaces. In addition, the requested system should be controlled via an automatic, recipe-controlled coating process, which is programmable by the user. This should allow to have a reproducible fabrication of memristive devices.

• DFG Programme: Major Research Instrumentation
• Major Instrumentation: Mehrkammer Sputteranlage
• Instrumentation Group: 8330 Vakuumbedampfungsanlagen und -präparieranlagen für Elektronenmikroskopie
• Applicant Institution: Technische Universität Ilmenau
• Leader: Professor Dr. Martin Ziegler