IUVSTA 15th International Vacuum Congress (IVC-15), AVS 48th International Symposium (AVS-48), 11th International Conference on Solid Surfaces (ICSS-11)
    Plasma Science Monday Sessions
       Session PS-MoP

Paper PS-MoP12
Energy Distributions of Ions and Neutrals from a Sputter Source

Monday, October 29, 2001, 5:30 pm, Room 134/135

Session: Plasma Diagnostics and Plasma-Surface Interactions Poster Session
Presenter: G.J. Peter, Inficon Limited, Principality of Liechtenstein
Authors: G.J. Peter, Inficon Limited, Principality of Liechtenstein
N. Mueller, Inficon Limited, Principality of Liechtenstein
H. Zogg, Inficon Limited, Principality of Liechtenstein
Correspondent: Click to Email
The kinetic energy of the deposited particles impinging on the surface of the substrate is an essential process parameter in sputter deposition processes. The energy as well as the mass of these particles can be measured with an energy selective mass spectrometer. Ions from the plasma can directly and easily be guided by an Ion Transfer Optics into the energy and mass filter resulting in a high sensitivity. In contrast to this, neutral particles have to be ionised first, before any energy or mass filtering can be done. It is common to use electron impact ion sources with well defined electrical potentials for ionisation, although this is a low efficiency process. For optimisation of the sensitivity for neutral particles, a wide acceptance angle of the ion is mandatory. This can be obtained by minimising the distance between the entrance aperture and the ion source. But this design is in no way optimum for the detection of ions, as at least the ion formation chamber of the ion source is a poor ion optics. So any design of a combined instrument will result in a poor sensitivity for the ions and a high sensitivity for the neutrals and vice versa. In order to overcome these difficulties, an otherwise standard plasma process monitor PPM 422 was equipped with two exchangeable, electrically insulated entrance apertures. One of it was used for the measurement of ions and the other one for detection of neutrals. The electrical insulation allows to set the aperture to any electrical potential. So a realistic simulation of the potentials on the substrate ca be performed. The energy distributions of particles from a gun type planar magnetron were measured with this modified device.