Paper VT-TuP9
Magnetron Sputter Coater Construction and Experiments

Tuesday, November 10, 2009, 6:00 pm, Room Hall 3

Magnetron sputter coating is a method of physical vapor deposition which occurs in vacuum with an inert gas. Production of quality coatings necessitates a rigorous approach to vacuum science. Over the course of the 2008 – 2009 academic year with support from the University of Collaboration and private donors we constructed a sputter coater modeled on a General Atomics sputter coater. The vacuum vessel is eight inches in diameter and stands approximately two feet high. It has thirteen different ports ranging in size from one and one quarter inches to eight inches. The ports accommodate a turbo pump backed by a small diaphragm pump providing 30 liter per second pumping speed, vacuum gauging, Argon and Nitrogen in-gassing, electrical feed-throughs for biasing, viewing windows, and a double tip Langmuir probe on a linear bellows. The magnetron is a two inch US Gunn capable of height adjustment. It is water cooled and powered by a MDX Advanced Energy Power Supply. The sum total of these parts is a research quality machine with immediate applications for Vassar faculty and students. Since construction of the system, we have performed the following experiments: arc discharge, copper sputter coating, spectroscopy, and spatially resolved double tip Langmuir probe scans. We have determined plasma parameters such as electron density and electron temperature. Future experiments will include coating analysis using ultrafast acoustic thin film measurements techniques. In future years, the machine will become an advanced laboratory experiment maintained by Vassar College faculty for plasma physics education and research at Vassar College .