Ion beam deposition, wtth great uniformity

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ConfidentialNovember 2008 1

Nordiko Technical Services Limited500/550 Nest Business ParkMartin RoadHavantHampshire PO9 5TLUnited Kingdom

Corporate Member

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Location 50° 51’ 54.67”, 0° 58’ 15.49”

Nordiko Technical Services Limited

Nest Business Park500 m2 (5,380 ft2)70 m2 (750 ft2) cleanroom

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Introduction

Nordiko Limited Founded in 1972.Sputtering - magnetron and RF diode sputtering.Ion Beam technology - introduced in 1989.

First commercially available RF ion source.Ion Beam Deposition.Ion Beam Milling.

Nordiko Limited Acquired by Shimadzu Corporation 1998.Shimadzu decided to close Nordiko in 2003.

•Nordiko Technical Services Limited - May 2003.• Acquired by Anelva Corporation - June 2005.• Anelva 100% owned subsidiary of NEC.• NEC sold Anelva to Canon - October 2005.• Bought out Canon - October 2011.

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Ion Beam Deposition

If you are depositing very thin films the IBD has been tested to have better uniformity, run to run stability and smoothness than sputtering the same films.

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The I-Octave is considered a lab research tool. It has 4 target material but good for uniformity across 150mm substrates. Can be load locked with manual or full scaled automatic Load Lock.

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OrganisationSmall Enterprise

Expertise in Sputtering, IBD.Design, Assemble, Test, Support.Metal cutting is out sourced.

ISO 9001.ISO 14000 program started.

Granted in January 2013.

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Ion Beam DepositionApplications

Precision metallisation for HDD sensors and MRAM.• Hard bias for HDD heads.• Alumina deposition for HDD Gap and infill.• Optical films for DWDM.• VOx for infrared sensors.

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Ion Beam Deposition

The perfect machine for MR, MRAM, GMR, TMR or other magnetic orientated thin film applications. Consistent and repeatable even at 30 angstroms. 6 or 8 target materials or order with 2 deposition modules and get 12 or 16 materials.

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3600 IBD (Al2O3 3400)

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% U

nif

orm

ity

CrSi CoFe NiFe Ta Cu PtMn Al Ru SiO2 Ta2O5 Al2O30.0

0.2

0.4

0.6

0.8

Material

% U

nif

orm

ity

Material

0.8

0.6

0.4

0.2

0CrSi CoFe NiFe Ta Cu PtMn Al Ru SiO2 Ta2O5 Al2O3

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Smoothness and Texture

By its nature Ion Beam Deposition is performed at a low process pressure, typically in the region of 1E-04 Torr.

Multi-layer optical structures deposited by ion beam rely on the intrinsic film smoothness of the technique to deliver high performance low loos and low defect films.

The elimination of energetic plasma ions near the wafer prevents induced surface roughening.

Ra 0.224 nm

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3600 IBD

Ra over 500 nm sq 0.23 nm

Ra over 500 nm sq 0.26 nm

Critical bottom electrode

Smooth seedfor

Tunnel barrier

Repeatable &

yielding MRAM

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Performance - examples - 200 mm

SiO2 -Uniformity 0.06%Ta2O5 Uniformity 0.07%

IBD Deposition Uniformity

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3600 IBD

All films 50 nm thick

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3400 IBD

substrate table

auxiliary ion source

active target

target carousel

deposition ion source

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Ion Beam Deposition Module

3400 IBD Module.Stainless steel fabricated chamber.Full aperture access door, aluminium.Four targets.Deposition ion source.15 cm RF excited at 13.56 MHz.600 W solid state generator.Automatic, digitally controlled impedance matching transformer.Molybdenum grid triode ion extraction accelerator.Assist (auxiliary) ion source.20 cm RF excited at 13.56 MHz.600 W solid state generator.Automatic, digitally controlled impedance matching transformer.Molybdenum grid triode ion extraction accelerator.

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Ion Beam Deposition Module

3400 IBD Module.Vacuum system.3200 l.s-1 magnetically levitated turbomolecular pump - directly coupled, no high vacuum isolation valve.In chamber WaterPump, 20,000 ls-1 water vapour speed.30 m3.hr-1 dry mechanical pump.Combination vacuum gauge providing measurement from atmosphere through to 1E-09 Torr.Gas Metering.Metal sealed digitally addressed electronic mass flow controllers, each with a downstream high integrity diaphragm isolation valve.Normally two channels are provided to meter gas to each of the ion sources, additional channels can be specified.Each neutraliser has a further channel.For reactive systems one channel is fitted to meter gas directly into the chamber.

A high pressure RGA is available to provide closed loop partial pressure control to allow mixed oxide stoichiometry to be achieved reproducibly.

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200 mm Semiconductor production system.Initially Motorola - now Freescale.

• Brooks Gemini 200 - 300 bridge platform.

Mnem-ix

Vacuum Transfer

Vacuum load lockssingle/dual wafer

EFEMatmospheric aligner

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DARPA funded programme.1996 supplied Motorola with a combined Sputtering and IBD deposition tool.1998 supplied Motorola with the second IBD deposition tool.1998 supplied Motorola with a revised Sputtering deposition tool.Motorola selected IBD over Sputtering for production.2002 supplied Motorola with a production IBD MRAM tool - Mnem-ix.Configured for processing 200 mm wafers.

• Brooks Gemini 6000, 200 - 300 mm bridge platform.• Twin 7000 modules.

• Ion beam pre-clean.• Ion beam oxidation.

• Single 3600 IBD module.

MRAM - Motorola - FreeScale - Everspin

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Mnem-ix

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Mnem-ix

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Mnem-ix

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200 mm Wafer Handling Platform

Brooks Automation G2

Vacuum Transfer.Cryogenically pumped.OnBoard8.

Load locks.Single/dual wafer.Turbomolecular pump.200 l.s-1.

EFEM.Aligner

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3600 - 3800 IBDRectangular stainless steel chamber, with full aperture access door.Removable segmented chamber liners.3600 - six target carousel.3800 - eight target carousel.15 cm RF deposition ion source.20 cm RF auxiliary ion source.Twin 3200 l.s-1 magnetically levitated turbomolecular pumps.20,000 l.s-1 in chamber WaterPump.

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3600 IBDDual axis substrate table.On-axis wafer rotation, continuous, 0 to 60 rpm.Wafer orientation axis, 0 to 180°.

Embedded electro-magnets.Wafer plane magnetic field projector.Shutter.

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Multi-ring Magnetron Target Erosion

Re-sputtering of material from the substrate back to the target contributes to the change in compositional control as the target ages

Within the magnetic fields of a magnetron electrode the sputtering plasma is intensely localised. Differential sputtering occurs in ALL multi-component materials. The deeper the erosion variations the greater the variations in composition due to sputtering from differnent depths of the target.

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Ion Beam Target Erosion

In ion beam deposition the target area eroded is greater and more uniform across the target. This greatly reduces the effect of differential sputtering.

In addition there is a further pressure independent way of maintaining composition as the target ages.

Using the ion beam approach there is no resputtering from the substrate. The wafer surface is not subject to bombardment by energetic neutrals. As a result the a smooth surface texture is achieved.

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300 mm Deposition Performance

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FeaturesUnique geometry.

• Unique rf ion source.• Multi-target sequential sputtering.• Heavy duty vacuum load lock.

BenefitsExcellent within wafer uniformity.

• Excellent repeatability.

PerformanceDielectric deposition rate 24 nm.min-1.

• Within wafer non-uniformity across 300 mm

0.11% 1 sigma.

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Performance - examples

IBD Deposition Uniformity ± 0.008%

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Random access vacuum cassette load lock/s.Standard 25 wafer cassette.Optical sensors for slide out detection.Optical sensors for cassette mapping.700 l.s-1 turbomolecular pump.30 m3.hr-1 dry mechanical pump.Combined vacuum gauge covering he range from atmosphere to 1E-08 Torr.VAT series 02.VAT series 62 pipeline isolation valve.

Vacuum Cassette Load Lock

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Static cassette load lock.Static four (4) wafer cassette.

Vertical travel of the transfer arm (35 mm) is used to pick from four wafer slots within a static cassette.

Common vacuum environment to the robot transfer chamber.

No isolation valve between the load lock and the transfer chamber.700 l.s-1 turbomolecular pump.28 m3.hr-1 dry mechanical pump.

Combined vacuum gauge covering he range from atmosphere to 1E-08 Torr.VAT series 02.VAT series 62 pipeline isolation valve.

Ideal for research applications where small batches are often processed

Vacuum Load Lock - Static Cassette

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Transfer ChamberTransfer chamber.Six port or Eight port.

Six port; two load ports and four process ports.Eight port; two load ports and six process ports.Optical sensors for wafer tracking.700 l.s-1 turbomolecular pump.30 m3.hr-1 dry mechanical pump.

Three axis robot.SCARA style - single end effector.Rotary vacuum seal, magnet fluid feedthrough.Z-axis seal, edge welded bellows.

Aligner.Optical CCD aligner.Operates in concert with the robot.Wafer centre alignment ±0.25 mm.Angular alignment ±0.1 degree.

Control Automation SystemFeatures

System is not a PLC.• Modular computer with industrial I/O.• Intel micro-processor.• OS is Windows CE.• HMI on a separate PC.

InstallationsFourteen installations.

• Three new systems +.• Eleven field retro-fits.

• Ten in USA.• One in Japan. ⎬production tools.

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Control Automation System

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FeaturesCPU - only Ethernet & COM1 ports.

• No video, no keyboard, no mouse.

• Networked PC for user interface, HMI.

• Flash storage, no rotating hard disc.

• Low power CMOS - no fans.

• Serial, digital & analogue I/O modules.

• No back-plane - I/O modules build the bus.

• Intelligent Instrumentation.

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How An Ion Beam

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RF Ion SourceFeatures

RF ion source.Filamentless current neutralisation.Magnetically confined glow discharge.Embedded DC HT feedthroughs.Good maintenance access.Sources 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30 and 36 cm.

Benefits13.56 MHz plasma excitation.High efficiency sources.Rapid process qualification.High performance beam accelerator.Reliable operation in Oxygen.Precision - Control.

+ve-ve

RF ion source

plasma bridge neutraliser

accelerator

ion beam

AcceleratorTriode.Graphite or Molybdenum grids.Stainless steel support rings.

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Ion Source and Neutraliser

15 cm Ion Source Mk IIIRF excited.Proven technology.Production engineered.

Triode AcceleratorMolybdenum grids.Robust.Simple assembly.

Compact NeutraliserDC excited.

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Ion Extraction - Child-Langmuir

I = α a D (

)

2

V 3/

2 e

x

4πε

0 9

2e m

√

a = aperture radius

m = ion mass (amu)

V = V + V

- +

D = electrode separation

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Triode Accel - Decel Extraction

+

+

+

-

-

glow discharge

Vp

Vex = Vp + V+ + ∣V-∣

Eg:Vp = 20V+ = 500V- = 1500Vbeam = 520

V=0

V=2000

Accel Decel Output Beam

Vbeam = Vp + V+ + (V- - V-)Vbeam = Vp + V+

Vbeam ≃ V+

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Rotary Substrate TableFeatures

Dual Axis TableRotation on sample axis.Rotation to provide a variable inclination to the ion beam or material deposition flux. Configurable for different wafers/substrate sizes 150 to 300 mm.Water cooled table.

OptionsHigh speed rotation, 1000 rpm.Substrate heating.Magnetic field projection, in the plane of the substrate.Water cooled table.Substrate cooling is key for pattern transfer in milling.

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