Crucial elements in thin-film generation and advanced coating systems, deposition stages are used to increase process efficiency and encourage increased substrate coverage.
They can typically be characterized by the degrees of freedom with which they can alter the position of substrates during operation. Selecting the appropriate deposition stage for a given application is a crucial part of workflow management.
Types of Deposition Stages
Thanks to the use of mountings, static deposition stages are able to keep substrates within line-of-sight of the deposition source. These mountings can be constructed for a variety of substrate sizes and orientations, although they are not able to modify material temperatures or rotate.
In order to increase deposition rates and encourage greater uniformity in thin films, stages are created as ultra-high vacuum (UHV) devices. These devices provide heating and rotation in addition to optional radio frequency and direct current (DC) bias.
These attributes enable the preparation and activation of sample substrate surfaces to aid removal of surface contaminants via RF plasma etching. In addition, controlled crystal annealing can be achieved prior to film growth with semiconducting, conducting or insulating substrate wafer samples.
Deposition stages enable superior thin film morphologies in UHV conditions using temperature control alongside optional biasing. As well as resulting in enhanced coating uniformity, this achieves greater density, film and interface stress relief and accelerated deposition rates.
EpiCentre Deposition Stages and their Applications
EC-I series deposition stages from UHV Design offer high performance for a range of growth and deposition techniques, including molecular-beam epitaxy, chemical vapor deposition and sputtering.
EC-I series stages are well-suited to these applications, offering continuous substrate heating, biasing, rotation and facilities for substrate transfer compatible with UHV applications. EC-I deposition stages are suitable for SEMI standard wafers from 2” to 200mm diameter.
EpiCentre deposition stages are also perfect for substrate annealing and degassing in addition to other high temperature material modifications. Additionally, the GLAD deposition stage can be used with directional deposition sources such as pulsed laser deposition, thermal evaporation and magnetron sputtering.
UHV Design provides a complete range of in-line, right-angle, and glancing configurations in addition to modular designs to suit all specifications. To find out more about deposition stage solutions from UHV, get in touch via the website.
This information has been sourced, reviewed and adapted from materials provided by UHV DESIGN LTD.
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