Studies on Reactive Sputtering Processes of Oxide Thin Films

在2001年度，我们成功地制造了高密度ICP，并研究了在单独PM操作、单独ICP操作以及PM和ICP同时操作等几种操作条件下的基本放电特性。功能氧化物薄膜如MgO、TiO_2、ZnO和Al_2O_3由于其上级的电学性能，这些材料的光学、机械和生物性质。因此，高质量氧化物薄膜的高速率沉积比以往任何时候都更加需要。在过去，各种技术，如溅射，电子束蒸发，离子镀，和溶胶-凝胶法，已被用于制造氧化物薄膜。溅射法具有低温制备多晶材料、大面积成膜均匀性好、可扩展性强等优点，但由于其沉积速率低，限制了其工业应用 ...更多信息 te.例如，基于溅射的方法中MgO的沉积速率为至多0.5nm/s。为了高速沉积用作等离子体显示器放电电极保护层的高质量氧化镁薄膜，我们提出了一种新的反应溅射工艺，其中传统的平面磁控管（PM）通过电感耦合等离子体（ICP）辅助。1）采用内置单匝线圈天线，成功地制备出高密度ICP。2）采用13.56MHz、几百W的射频功率，制备出密度大于10 μ m的理想ICP<17><-3>。3）作为用图像增强CCD照相机和光谱仪对轴向和径向空间分布的光发射测量的结果，我们已经证实，在靶电极和衬底电极之间产生了理想的ICP。在上述操作条件下，我们证实了ICP和PM的同时操作对溅射金属原子的再电离是有效的。少

In the fiscal year 2001, we have succeeded in producing the high density ICP, and investigated the fundamental discharge properties under several operation conditions such as the sole PM operation, the sole ICP operation, and the simultaneous operation of PM and ICP.The use of functional oxide thin films such as MgO, TiO_2, ZnO, and A1_2O_3 has been rapidly increasing in industry because of superior electrical, optical, mechanical, and biological nature of these materials. Thus, the high-rate deposition of high-quality oxide thin films has been more demanded than ever. In the past, various techniques such as sputtering, electron-beam evaporation, ion plating, and sol-gel methods, have been used for the fabrication of oxide thin films. In general, the sputtering method has the distinct advantages of low temperature processing for polycrystalline materials, film uniformity over large areas, and scalabiliry; however, its industrial application has been limited due to its low deposition ra … More te. For example, the deposition rate for MgO in the sputter based method is at the most 0.5 nm/s. For the purpose of high-rate deposition of high-quality magnesium oxide thin films that have been used as the protection-layers of discharge electrodes in plasma display panels, we have proposed a new reactive sputtering process in which conventional planar magnetron (PM) is assisted -by the inductively coupled plasma (ICP).Obtained results in the fiscal year 2001 are summarized as follows :1) By-using an internal single-turn coil antenna, we have succeeded in producing high-density ICP.2) Application of 13.56MHz RF power of several hundreds ofW generated an ideal ICP with a density of more than 10^<17>m^<-3>.3) As a result of the optical emission measurements of the axial and radial spatial profiles with an image-intensified CCD camera and spectrometers, we have confirmed that an ideal ICP was produced between the target and substrate electrodes.4) As a result of the comparison between the above-mentioned operation conditions, we have confirmed that the simultaneous operation of ICP and PM is effective for reionizing the sputtered metallic atoms. Less