Refurbishment of a 18-Year Old PECVD System

本研究工具和仪器(RTI)申请的目的是申请一笔赠款，以翻新一个长达18年的等离子体增强化学气相沉积(PECVD)系统。该系统位于滑铁卢大学的集成射频工程中心(CIRFE)洁净室设施中，该中心致力于制造微纳设备。PECVD系统用于沉积二氧化硅、二氧化硅或/和氮化硅SiNx薄膜。在过去的18年里，该系统一直是CIRFE洁净室的主力，也是成功完成许多制造工艺和开发各种新型器件的重要工具。在过去18年里经历了几次维修周期后，一些系统硬件组件不再用于商业销售。很明显，该系统需要进行一次全面翻新，以使其达到适当的运行状态。 该系统使滑铁卢大学的20多名教职员工和他们的研究生受益，他们目前正在使用CIRFE洁净室的制造服务。这也使加拿大的其他研究人员受益，他们使用CIRFE净化室进行薄膜沉积服务。

The purpose of this Research Tool and Instruments (RTI) application is to request a grant to refurbish a 18-year Plasma Enhanced Chemical Vapor Deposition (PECVD) System. The system is located in the Center for Integrated RF Engineering (CIRFE) clean room facility at the University of Waterloo, which is dedicated to the fabrication of micro and nano devices. The PECVD system is used for deposition of silicon dioxides SiO2 or/and silicon nitride SiNx films. Over the past 18 years, this system has been the workhorse of the CIRFE clean room and has been an essential tool for successfully completing many fabrication processes and developing a wide range of novel devices. After going through few repair cycles over the past 18 years, some of the system hardware components are no longer commercially available. It became clear that the system needs an overall refurbishment to get it to the proper operational state. The system benefits more than 20 faculty members and their graduate students at the University of Waterloo who currently use the fabrication services of the CIRFE clean room. It also benefits other researchers in Canada who access the CIRFE clean room for thin film deposition services.