Vacuum coating – Paul Wu's Blog

Plasma Basics

What is plasma?

An ionized gas consisting of ions (mainly positive ions) and free electrons in proportions
Electrons are moving much faster than ions, due to mass difference
Quasi-zero overall electric charges
The 4^th state of matter
Important parameters about plasma: plasma density, plasma potential, ion energy

Nitrides

Found a useful table for Nitrides from wikipedia.

Plasma diagnostic

Three techniques are adopted for plasma diagnostic (electron temperature, electron density): Optical Emission Spectrum (OES), Thompson scattering, and Langmuir probe.

Off-Axis Inverted Cylindrical Magnetron (ICM) Sputtering

Kurt J. Lesker Company (KJLC) introduced a novel optical coating system incorporating the Isoflux Inverted Cylindrical Magnetron (ICM).

Off-axis sputtering and Face target sputtering

In conventional on-axis sputtering, plasma and high energy ions/atoms may damage the desired film, leading to unexpected properties. Therefore, off-axis and face target sputtering are developed.

Indium tin oxide (ITO) is tin-doped In₂O₃, a n-type wide-bandgap heavily doped (or degenerate) semiconductor with certain metal-like properties. Therefore it is a transparent conductor, and broadly used in variety of industries.

Cryopump and maintenance

Provided temperature is low enough, all gas molecules can be condensed onto a cold surface and thus creates vacuum in an enclosed chamber.

Ellipsometry

Ellipsometry is a powerful tool in thin film field to characterize film properties, e.g. refractive index (n), extinction coefficiency (k), surface roughness, crystallinity, etc.

Vacuum coating related suppliers

Vacuum coating related materials/component/equipment Suppliers, particularly in SF Bay Area: Continue reading “Vacuum coating related suppliers”

Category: Vacuum coating