Standard Operating Manualmfz140.ust.hk/Eq_manual/SOP of CVC601 sputter.pdfBase Pressure Evacuation 6.2.2 Cooling Water Supply 6.2.3 Throttle Valve Open 6.2.4 Argon Gas Supply and Control

NANOSYSTEM FABRICATION FACILITY (NFF), HKUST

Copyright © 11.2015 by Hong Kong University of Science & Technology. All rights reserved. Page 1

Standard Operating Manual ___________________________________________________________

CVC601 Sputter System



Contents

1. Picture and Location

2. Process Capabilities

2.1 Cleanliness Standard

2.2 Possible Sputtering Materials

2.3 Process Specification

2.3.1 What the CVC601 Sputter Can Do

2.3.2 What the CVC601 Sputter Cannot Do

2.4 Sputtering Process Useful Information

3. Useful Information to Work in NFF

3.1 Emergency Responses and Communications

3.2 Become a Qualified CVC601 Sputter User

4. Operation Safety and Rules

4.1 Operation Safety

4.1.1 General Safety

4.1.2 Equipment Safety

4.2 Operation Rules

5. System Operation

5.1 CVC601 Sputter System Description

5.2 Initial Status Check

5.3 Initial System Check

5.4 Preparation before Sputter Process

5.4.1 Cooling Water Valves ON

5.4.2 DC Power Supply ON

6. CVC601 Operation

6.1 Wafer Load

6.2 Manual Operation

6.2.1 Base Pressure Evacuation

6.2.2 Cooling Water Supply

6.2.3 Throttle Valve Open

6.2.4 Argon Gas Supply and Control

6.2.5 DC Power Supply

6.2.6 DC Target Selection

6.2.7 Shutter Position Selection

6.2.8 Substrate Rotation

6.3 Start Process

6.3.1 Set Process time

6.3.2 Start Process

6.3.3 Shutter Opening

6.3.4 Process Completed

6.4 Equipment Shutdown

6.5 Wafer Unload

7. Process Recording during Process

8. Clean Up

9. Check Out

https://snf.stanford.edu/SNF/equipment/metalization-sputtering/evaporation/innotec-es26c-e-beam-evaporator/#section-9



CVC601 Sputter System

1. Picture and Location

Fig.1 CVC601 Sputter system

The CVC601 Sputter system is located at NFF Phase II cleanroom, Room 2240.

2. Process Capabilities

2.1 Cleanliness Standard CVC601 sputter is classified as Non-Standard equipment.

2.2 Possible Sputtering Materials

Metal materials listed in our website, including TiW, Al, Cu, Au, etc…

2.3 Process Specification

2.3.1 What the CVC601 Sputter Can Do

Up to six pieces of 2, 3 or 4 inches full substrates.

Up to six pieces of 4” square glass substrates.



2.3.2 What the CVC601 Sputter Cannot do

Substrate that generate particles during sputtering process.

Substrate that cannot sustain in high sputtering temperature.

Substrate that contains harmful substances.

No small samples that fixing on a substrate will be allowed.

TiW and Gold film sputtering over 5000A is approved on request.

Other metal films sputtering over 2um is approved on request.

No masking photoresist will be allowed.

2.4 Sputtering Process Useful Information

Typical film uniformity is around 10% for 6 wafers sputtering at the same time.

The vacuum required for good film adhesion must be <2x10-6

Torr, so overnight

chamber evacuation may be required.

Sputter rate of TiW is 175A/min, film thickness over 1000A need to divide into two

or more sessions, the power use is DC 2.5KW.

Sputter rate of Al-Si is 540A/min, film thickness over 5000A need to divide into two

or more sessions, the power use is DC 2.5KW.

Sputter rate of Cu is 1200A/min, film thickness over 1um need to divide into two or

more sessions, the power use is DC 2.5KW.

Sputter rate of Au is 162.5A/min, film thickness over 5000A is approved on request,

and the power use is RF 1.0KW. However, gold film sputter process will be carry

out by NFF technician.

As the temperature is quite high during sputter process. In order not to overheat the

target, no more than 10 minutes process time per run, and 15 minutes cool down

time is required between run. Also, cooling water supplied must be on before sputter

process starts.

3. Useful Information to Work in NFF

3.1 Emergency Responses and Communications

In case of emergency issues, please contact NFF staffs,

https://snf.stanford.edu/SNF/equipment/metalization-sputtering/evaporation/innotec-es26c-e-beam-evaporator/#section-9



Preason Lee – Deputy Safety office (x7900),

CK Wong – senior technician (x7226)

In case of technical help, please contact NFF staffs,

CK Wong – senior technician (x7896)

Casper Chung –technician (x7896)

Brial Kwok – technician (x7896)

3.2 Become a Qualified CVC601 Sputter User

Please follow the procedures below to become a qualified user of the CVC601 sputter:

Read all materials provided on the NFF website of the CVC601.

Request CVC601 operation training and examination online.

4. Operation Safety and Rules

4.1 Operation Safety

4.1.1 General Safety

CVC601 user must familiar themselves with the following general safety issues:

Location of emergency exits and assembly points

Procedures for obtaining first aid assistance must be known.

Various alarm sounds and emergency call procedures must be known.

4.1.2 Equipment Safety

CVC601 user must be aware themselves of the following equipment safety issues:

In emergency when using the equipment, please push the emergency power button

of the DC power supply (Fig. 2) to interrupt the sputter power, and report to the NFF

staffs immediately. DO NOT attempt to resume the process before the problem is

solved.



Fig.2 Emergency Power Button

If the equipment fails while being used, never try to fix the problem by your own,

please write down the problem information and report to NFF etching module staffs.

Be careful to the components of the equipment, which involves electric power, high

DC power, high temperature and mechanical hazard.

4.2 Operation Rules

Do not operate the equipment unless you are properly trained and authorize to

operate the equipment.

Reserve the equipment in NFF website in advance.

Reservation will be forfeited if user never shows up and check-in within half of the

session time and it may cause a $200 penalty.

Fill all the details of the log-sheet attached, i.e. date, name, project number, email,

project details, material …

Do not leave an on-going sputtering process unattended.



5. System Operation

5.1 CVC601 Sputter System Description

The CVC601 is a production graded metal film deposition system that fully controlled

by processor. It consists of two DC magnetron sputtering guns with 8” diameter targets

and one RF magnetron gun with 6” diameter gold target. In addition a cryo-pump system

is used to achieve a high vacuum pressure range of 10-6

Torr. Therefore, with larger

target size and better base vacuum pressure, CVC601 offers a much better film quality

than the table-top scale sputter system.

5.2 Initial Status Check

Users are required to do the following checks before doing the sputtering process:

Please check the equipment status from the shutdown notice board in the NFF

reservation website.

If the equipment has been reserved, then check the user name and project number

that displayed on the dedicated LCD screen are correct (Fig. 3).

Please check-in the reserved equipment on your own within half of the session time.

To do the check-in, please scan your NFF access card over the card reader attached.

After checked-in the equipment, the red LED on the card reader will be ON.

If you are failed to do the check-in, there is an interlock, and you cannot operate the

equipment normally.

Before operate the equipment, make sure you have read and ready to fill the details

of the log-sheets attached.



Fig.3 Reservation and Equipment check-in status LCD

5.3 Initial System Check

Visual check any water leakage from the equipment.

Check any abnormal sound coming from the equipment.

5.4 Preparation before Sputter Process

You are advised to do the following steps before start the sputter process.

5.4.1 Cooling Water Valves ON

Check the cooling water valves for the target has been turned ON (Fig.4). The water

valves can be accessed at the back side of the chamber. Please turn on the main

water valve and then individual cooling water valves according to the process target.

The water flow level can be observed with the flow meter, it is around 3.8 GPM.

However, CVC user should pay attention to the obstacles when accessing the water

valves, i.e. power/signal cables on the floor, pump pipes, etc….



Fig. 4 Cooling water valves and flow meter

5.4.2 DC Power Supply ON

Check the DC power supply has been switched ON (Fig.5). The switch can be

accessed at the backside of the DC power supply when open the cabinet door.

However, CVC user must pay attention when switch ON/OFF the DC power supply,

be careful not touching the power switches and power cord of other controllers.

Fig.5 DC power supply switch.



6. CVC601 Operation

In order to get easy to work with the CVC601 operation, we have put different color

labels on the equipment control panels; user can follow the color labels defined in the

following section to do the operation.

6.1 Wafer Load

To do the wafer load/unload; please follow the blue labels step by step:

On the AV485 Automatic Valve Controller, click the STOP (blue label 1) button to

stop chamber evacuation. The red LED of the Hi-Vac will be off (Fig.6).

Then, click the VENT (blue label 2) button to vent the chamber to atmosphere

pressure. It takes around 5 minutes to achieve. At this stage, the red LED of the

VENT button and valve will be on (Fig.6). Once the chamber is returned to the

atmosphere pressure, then the red LED of the VENT button and the valve will be off

(Fig.6), and the cover of the loader can be lift up (Fig.7).

Fig.6 AVC485 Automatic Valve Controller

Fig.7 Wafer loader cover



Open and put the cover aside, then the wafer can be load/unload through the loading

port (Fig.8). Take out the dummy wafers on the substrate holder and put them into

the dummy wafer box provided if necessary. However, please make sure the wafers

must be loaded up-side down (sputter side face down).

Fig.8 Wafer Loading Port

There are totally 6 substrate holding positions. To rotate the holding position, please

switch on the Power (blue label 3) of the Rotostrate Controller pulse by pulse (Fig.9).

Then, the next holding position can be accessed. However, please check and make

sure there should be dummy wafers or device wafers on the substrate holder, don’t

leave any vacancy to the substrate holder.

Dangerous: please be reminded, do not put any hands to the moving substrate holder,

and wafers can only be loaded when the substrate holder is not running.

Fig.9 Substrate Rotation

After load/unload wafers, put back the wafer loader cover inside the blue circle

marked evenly. Then, power on the MECHANICAL PUMP (blue label 4) (Fig.10).



Fig.10 Mechanical Pump

Then click the START (blue label 5) button to start chamber evacuation. The red

LED of the START and ROUGH valve will be on (Fig.6).

Once chamber reached the crossover pressure, the Rough valve of the mechanical

pump will be turn off, and then the Hi-Vac valve of the cryo pump will be turn on

(Fig.6).

After the Hi-Vac valve and LED is on, then power off the MECHANICAL PUMP

(blue label 6) (Fig.10).

Finally, vent (blue label 7) the pump lines for 10 seconds to prevent oil back

streaming (Fig.11).

Fig.11 Gas Control Panel

6.2 Manual Operation

6.2.1 Base Pressure Evacuation

Typical base pressure for the process of Al is <2x10-6

Torr, and TiW and Au is

5x10-6

Torr<. It takes more than 3 hours to achieve base chamber pressure. To read the

base pressure of the chamber with the GIC400 controller, turn the selector to LOG level

(Fig.12). Then, hold both POWER and FILAMENT ON buttons together, the pressure



range can be read from pressure gauge at the right side. The gauge is ranging from 10-3

to 10-8

Torr. Then turn the selector to the correct pressure range, and details pressure can

be observed from the pressure gauge when holding both POWER and FILAMENT ON

buttons (Fig.12).

Fig.12 GIC 400 pressure controller

6.2.2 Cooling Water Supply

Check the status of cooling water, turn on the water valve (yellow label 1) according to

the station of the sputtered metal, and turn on the main water return valve (section

5.4.1).

6.2.3 Throttle Valve Open

To open the throttle valve, switch on the throttle valve (yellow label 2) on the gas control

panel (Fig.11). Then, check the throttle valve position by viewing from the side of the

cryo pump under the table top (Fig.13).

Fig.13 Throttle valve open/close position



6.2.4 Argon Gas Supply and Control

Switch on the argon gas supply (yellow label 3) on the gas control panel (Fig.11). Then,

switch on the main power of the MKS 247 pressure controller (yellow label 4) and the

power of gas channel 1 (Fig.14). The default argon flow rate is 40 sccm, and it takes 30

seconds to become stable.

Fig.14 MKS247 pressure controller

6.2.5 DC Power Supply

Switch on the power of the MDX DC power supply (yellow label 5) as mentioned in the

section 5.4.2.

6.2.6 DC Target Selection

Switch on the power of the target selector (yellow label 6), and then select the right

target by the selector (Fig.15). TiW target is located in station 1, Cu or Al target is

located in station 2, and Au is located in station 3.

Fig.15 DC target selector

6.2.7 Shutter Position Selection

Confirm and select the shutter position by using the shutter position selector switch

(yellow label 7). Typically, the shutter should be set in shutter position 2 if TiW (station

1) is going to sputter; oppositely the shutter should be set in shutter position 1 if Al or



Cu (station 2) is going to sputter (Fig.15).

6.2.8 Substrate Rotation

Switch on the power of the substrate rotation (yellow label 8) as shown in Fig.9. Then

observe the rotation table gear box and shaft is running under the chamber (Fig.16).

Fig.16 Substrate rotation

6.3 Start Process

Before starting the process, please confirm again the following items are ready.

Cooling water supplies and return are ready.

MDX DC power supply is switch on.

Target shutter is placing in a correct position.

To start the process, please follow the following steps

6.3.1 Set Process Time

The process time can be set on the PROCESS TIMER located in the Master Control in

decimal unit (Fig.17) (green label 1). Typical sputter rate of the metal films are mentioned

in section 2.4 and tabulated in the following table 1.0. However, there is a 3 minutes

pre-deposition time added for the DC power ramp up from 0 to 2.5KW for Al, TiW and

Cu material.



Fig.17 Master Control

Table1.0 Metal film sputter rate

6.3.2 Start Process

The sputter process can be start by switching on both process timer and DC power

supply. To do this, use one hand to switch the button to the START position of TIMED

of MASTER CONTROL (green label 2) (Fig.17), and use the other hand to click ON

button of the OUTPUT of the MDX DC power supply (green label 3) (Fig.18).



Fig.18 DC power supply

6.3.3. Shutter Opening

As described, there is a 3 minutes pre-deposition time is required for the DC power ramp

up from 0 to 2.5KW. Therefore, the shutter can be open according to the metal film

sputtered. To do this, please observe the count down time displayed in the MDX power

supply (Fig.18). For sputtering Al or Cu film, when the count down time is 0.07s, switch

the shutter position button from TiW to Al/Cu. For sputtering TiW film, when the count

down time is 0.14s, switch the shutter position button from Al/Cu to TiW (green label 4)

(Fig.19).

Fig.19 Shutter position

6.3.4 Process Completed

Once the process time is over, then the process will be terminated.

6.4 Equipment Shutdown

After process, user is required to shut down the equipment oppositely according to the

turn on procedures and the yellow labels:



Switch off the power of substrate holder rotation (yellow label 8).

Switch off the power of DC target selector (yellow label 6).

Switch off the power of DC power supply (yellow label 5).

Switch off the power of the MKS247 controller (yellow label 4).

Switch off the Argon gas supply (yellow label 3).

Switch off the throttle valve (yellow label 2).

Switch off the water supplies and return valves (yellow label 1).

6.5 Wafer Unload

The wafers can be collect back 30 minutes after sputter process. The wafer unload

procedures are similar to the wafer load procedures; please refer to section 6.1 for

details.

7. Process Recording during Process

Please be reminded you are required to fill all the details of the log sheets. If users

fail to do this, a punishment will be given.

Write down any problems or comments in the log sheets

8. Clean Up

Clean up the area.

Put back the dummy wafer box to the original position.

Put back the tweezer to the original position.

9. Check Out

Check out the equipment immediately after use.

Documents

Standard Operating Manualmfz140.ust.hk/Eq_manual/SOP of CVC601 sputter.pdfBase Pressure Evacuation 6.2.2 Cooling Water Supply 6.2.3 Throttle Valve Open 6.2.4 Argon Gas Supply and Control