High Power Impulse Magnetron Sputtering (HiPIMS) Plasmas for Thin Film Deposition

Date:

8:30am-4:00pm, Monday, May 15th, 2017, Sheraton Albuquerque Airport Hotel, Albuquerque, NM

Course Objectives

  • Provide motivation for the use of plasmas in film deposition processes
  • Understand the basics of plasmas, and especially condensable plasmas by HiPIMS
  • Extend the fundamentals of conventional sputtering to high power impulse magnetron sputtering
  • Summarize the latest developments of the field

Course Description

The course starts with a brief introduction to basic plasma and sheath physics, with emphasis on plasma generators including, but not limited to, sources for condensable (metal) plasmas and vapors. The operation of cathodic arcs will be contrasted with the processes in conventional magnetron sputtering.  Those points are the foundation for understanding the time-dependent processes in pulsed magnetrons and pulsed substrate bias situations. Emphasis is put on the high pulsed power case, when significant ionization of the sputtered material occurs, leading to the new technology of high power impulse magnetron sputtering (HiPIMS). The ionization of sputtered atoms is considered for various target materials, and the role of self-sputtering and secondary electron emission is examined. This technology is seen as enabling for cost-effective self-ion etching and self-ion-assisted film deposition on relatively large areas or batches of substrates. The issue of the reduced power-normalized deposition rate and recent findings on plasma spokes and flares are explained. The course shows examples of coatings such as complex nitrides for hard and wear-resistant coatings.

Course Content

  • The evolution of HiPIMS and other ionized PVD techniques
  • Sputtering: An introduction to the relevant physics of plasmas and sheaths
  • Introduction to High Power Impulse Magnetron Sputtering
  • Characterization of HiPIMS systems: Electrical data and plasma diagnostics
  • Recent findings of plasma spokes and flares, their effect on magnetron operation and coatings
  • Comparison of arc plasmas and HiPIMS plasmas
  • Ion etching and film growth; energetic condensation
  • Interface engineering by using condensable plasmas
  • Deposition and coatings by arcs and HiPIMS

Who Should Attend?

This course is intended for engineers, scientists and students interested in Ionized PVD techniques.

Instructor: Andre Anders, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL)

André Anders is a Senior Scientist and the Leader of the Plasma Applications Group at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, California. Since July 2014, he is the Editor-in-Chief for Journal of Applied Physics, published by AIP Publishing.

Andre studied physics in Wroclaw, Poland, Berlin, then East-Germany and Moscow, Russia, then Soviet Union. He holds an M.S. degree (’84) and Ph.D. degree (’87) in physics from Humboldt University, Berlin. He was a Staff Scientist at the Academy of Sciences in East Berlin (1987-1991), witnessing the fall of the Berlin Wall. In 1992, using new opportunities, he moved to Berkeley, California, to join LBNL where his research involved topics of plasma physics and material science, including coatings and thin film synthesis, high power impulse magnetron sputtering, cathodic vacuum arc plasma and ion sources, gas plasma sources, ion implantation, and plasma immersion ion implantation, transparent conducting oxides, and electrochromic materials.  Andre is the author/co-author of over 300 papers in peer-reviewed journals and has authored/edited three books.  His work is cited more than 12,000 times.

He received the Nathaniel H. Sugerman Memorial Award, the Walter P. Dyke Award, the Mentor Award of the Society of Vacuum Coaters, the IEEE Merit Award of the Nuclear and Plasma Sciences Society, the Chatterton Young Investigator Award and two R&D 100 Awards.

He was elected Fellow of IEEE (the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) in 2001, Fellow of the Institute of Physics (UK) in 2002, Fellow of the American Physical Society (2008), and Fellow of the American Vacuum Society (2011).

Course Materials

Course notes.

Cost:  $690.00

Full Short Course List

Register to attend short courses HERE.