Simulation and Optimization of Film Thickness Uniformity in Physical Vapor Deposition

Coatings

Shigeng Song¹  Desmond Gibson¹  HinOn Chu¹  Zhentao Wu¹  Cheng Li¹  Yongjing Shi²  Xiuhua Fu³  Ben Wang³ 

[1] Institute of Thin Films, Sensors and Imaging, School of Engineering and Computing, University of the West of Scotland, Paisley PA1 2BE, UK;School of Material Science and Engineering, Chongqing University of Science and Technology, Chongqing 401331, China;School of OptoElectronic Engineering, Changchun University of the Science and Technology, Changchun 130022, China;

关键词: thin film uniformity;    physical vapor deposition;    thin film modelling;    thickness distribution;   

DOI  :  10.3390/coatings8090325

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

Optimization of thin film uniformity is an important aspect for large-area coatings, particularly for optical coatings where error tolerances can be of the order of nanometers. Physical vapor deposition is a widely used technique for producing thin films. Applications include anti-reflection coatings, photovoltaics etc. This paper reviews the methods and simulations used for improving thin film uniformity in physical vapor deposition (both evaporation and sputtering), covering characteristic aspects of emission from material sources, projection/mask effects on film thickness distribution, as well as geometric and rotational influences from apparatus configurations. Following the review, a new program for modelling and simulating thin film uniformity for physical vapor deposition was developed using MathCAD. Results from the program were then compared with both known theoretical analytical equations of thickness distribution and experimental data, and found to be in good agreement. A mask for optimizing thin film thickness distribution designed using the program was shown to improve thickness uniformity from ±4% to ±0.56%.

【 授权许可】

Unknown