ICB technology

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The ICB technology (from English ionized cluster beam , ICB, also ionized cluster beam deposition , ICBD) is an ion-supported physical vapor deposition process for the production of thin layers ( metals , dielectrics and semiconductors ) at low substrate temperatures .

functionality

The ICB technique is a modified vapor deposition process in which the crucible used with the (molten) starting material is initially kept closed. Evaporation of the material and heating of the material vapor creates an overpressure in the closed crucible. When a process-specific pressure is reached, the steam for the coating is released through a nozzle. This leads to an adiabatic expansion (increase in volume) of the steam, that is, no energy exchange with the environment takes place during the expansion and the steam cools down quickly due to the volume work performed . A kind of condensation occurs in the gas space, in which electrically neutral atom clusters , consisting of approx. 500 to 2000 atoms, are formed.

In the gas space, the initially neutral atom clusters are partially ionized (5–35%) by collisions with an electron beam and then accelerated using an electric field . When they hit the substrate surface, these atom clusters partially disintegrate, spread over the surface and form a condensed layer.

Using the acceleration voltage, it is possible to vary the average energy of the atomic clusters from the purely thermal energy to over 200 eV per atom. This enables a controlled deposition of crystalline layers and epitaxy . The coating properties (layer conformity, etc.) of the process are mainly influenced by the characteristic structure and the effect of ionization and acceleration of the atomic clusters. The acceleration voltage can, however, also be used to adjust the energy of the clusters in such a way that a cleaning or even atomizing effect of the substrate is achieved , similar to sputtering .

literature

  • Stephen M. Rossnagel, JJ Cuomo, William Dickson Westwood: Handbook of plasma processing technology: fundamentals, etching, deposition, and surface interactions . William Andrew, 1990, ISBN 0-8155-1220-1 ( limited preview in Google Book Search).
  • Krishna Seshan: Handbook of thin-film deposition processes and techniques: principles, methods, equipment and applications . William Andrew, 2002, ISBN 978-0-8155-1442-8 ( limited preview in Google Book Search).
  • Toshinori Takagi: Ionized cluster beam (ICB) deposition and processes . In: Pure and App. Chem . tape 60 , 1988, pp. 781-794 ( PDF ).
  • Toshinori Takagi: Ionized-cluster beam deposition and epitaxy . William Andrew, 1988, ISBN 0-8155-1168-X ( limited preview in Google Book Search).

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Werner Baumann, Bettina Herberg-Liedtke: Chemicals in metal processing: data and facts on environmental protection . Springer, 1995, ISBN 3-540-60094-9 , pp. 127 .