AVS 47th International Symposium
    Surface Engineering Tuesday Sessions
       Session SE-TuP

Paper SE-TuP4
High Rate Sputtering for Ni Films by r.f.-d.c. Coupled Magnetron Sputtering System with Multipolar Magnetic Plasma Confinement

Tuesday, October 3, 2000, 5:30 pm, Room Exhibit Hall C & D

Session: Poster Session
Presenter: K. Kawabata, Hiroshima Institute of Technology, Japan
Authors: K. Kawabata, Hiroshima Institute of Technology, Japan
T. Tanaka, Hiroshima Institute of Technology, Japan
A. Kitabatake, Hiroshima Sanyo Vacuum Industries Co., LTD., Japan
K. Yamada, Hiroshima Sanyo Vacuum Industries Co., LTD., Japan
Y. Mikami, Hiroshima Sanyo Vacuum Industries Co., LTD., Japan
H. Kajioka, Western Hiroshima Prefecture Industrial Institute of Technology, Japan
K. Toiyama, Western Hiroshima Prefecture Industrial Institute of Technology, Japan
Correspondent: Click to Email
It is difficult to prepare ferromagnetic films such as Ni with the conventional magnetron sputtering at a low pressure and at a long substrate-target distance. Ni films were prepared by an r.f.-d.c. coupled magnetron sputtering with a multipolar magnetic plasma confinement (MMPC) at the low pressure of 6.7x10@super -2@ Pa and at the long distance of 120 mm, where the permanent magnets were placed around a Ni target (200mm, 5mm thick) outside the chamber. R.f. power and d.c. bias were applied simultaneously to the target where an r.f. power of 60W was utilized to stabilize the plasma discharge. The deposition rate of Ni films significantly increased with the increasing target d.c. bias voltage (V@sub T@) because the target current increased with the V@sub T@. The highest value of the deposition rate was about 250 nm/min at V@sub T@=-850V. The increase in the deposition rate with V@sub T@ might be attribute to enhanced gas ionization due to a strong magnetic confinement of the plasma. It was found that the high rate sputtering for Ni films is possible at the Ar gas pressure of 6.7x10@super -2@Pa. The resistivity for all the films deposited at different d.c. bias voltages was 7.1-8.2µm@ohm@cm whose values were close to the bulk value of 6.9µm@ohm@cm. The intensity of the Ni (111) plane observed from X-ray diffraction patterns markedly increased with the V@super T@ and the value of the grain size estimated from the plane was 32-75nm. Therefore, it is shown that the sputtering system with MMPC has some advantages, in comparison with conventional magnetron sputtering, such as high deposition rate, plasma discharge stability, and the preparation of high quality magnetic thin films.