Pre-Cleaning in Thin Film Deposition

Woman in scrubs cleaning a thin film

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The global physical vapor deposition market is expected to expand at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 7.5% from 2022 to 2030. The increasing demand for this process is due to the technological advancements in the industry. PVD films are used in applications for solar cells, optical & electrical components, automobiles, wear coatings, energy… Read More

The Benefits of Bias Target Sputtering

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Enabling Sputtering from the Target Only Bias Target Sputtering (BTS) has excellent process control and stoichiometry while reducing contamination and lowering cost of ownership. The ultralow contamination leads to higher performance in lasers and fewer defects enables higher laser damage threshold. BTS is also used for EUV mask blanks which must be defect-free or the… Read More

Why PIB-CVD? Process Tunability

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The process tunability of PIB-CVD makes it optimal for many thin film applications. The inherent tunability of PIB-CVD enables a wide range of film properties including flowable, soft, thin film encapsulation layers as well as hard, highly hydrophobic, and optically clear coatings. As a result, multilayer and gradient coatings can be produced in a single chamber from… Read More

Thin Film Requirements for Emerging Display Applications

A 3D rendering of a foldable smartphone, showing the lock screen with the date in the left panel and the time in the right panel.

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As manufacturers look to introduce exciting new features to customers and increase device lifespan in consumer electronics applications, thin film coating requirements are beginning to change as well. Durability and performance continue to be critical but flexibility and ultra-thin coatings are increasingly in demand. Emerging display applications are seeing new form factors and a heavy shift… Read More

Reducing Resistivity and Stress in Tungsten Coatings

Graph showing the average resistivity of two layer W films at the given substrate temperature.

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Tungsten coatings are commonly used in semiconductor applications and have the potential to be used in emerging solar energy applications. These thin films are commonly subject to high stress and low adhesion, but when manufacturers try and compensate for stress, it leads to increased resistivity. In order to achieve the best performance and repeatability for… Read More

Managing Spit Defects During Evaporation

A side-by-side comparison of spit during evaporation with a standard source design, and with Denton's proprietary source design. With Denton's design, you see significantly less spit particles.

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Spit defects are some of the biggest obstacles to ensuring thickness uniformity and production efficiency in evaporation and indium bump deposition. There are ways to adjust your process to eliminate spit defects and improve yield, but if you work with a partner who has solved for these defects in their system design, you will realize… Read More

Enhancing Thickness Uniformity for Medical Device Coatings

Surgeons inserting a stent during heart surgery.

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Medical devices often require thin film coatings to optimize performance and longevity, while also ensuring patient safety. Because these devices often feature unique properties compared to “normal” substrates, such as a completely curved or flexible structure, they have challenging thin film deposition process requirements. Magnetron sputtering with an inverted cylindrical cathode is one thin film… Read More

Optimizing Cost of Ownership for Precious Metal Coatings

Nuggets of gold on a black background

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Material transfer efficiency may not be the biggest concern for all coatings, but when using precious metals, it becomes a major factor in cost of ownership. For applications that require the use of precious metals to ensure performance, like metal contacts and superconducting tape, your thin film deposition system design will play a major role… Read More

Enabling Thickness Uniformity and Control for Curved Optics

Spherical external surveillance camera on building facade

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One of the most important requirements for precision optics is thickness uniformity of thin film coatings. Achieving a high degree of uniformity on flat optics usually requires complex motion or restricted deposition zoned, which often lowers deposition rates. For curved optics, there is no practical way to achieve the uniformity needed through a conventional thin… Read More

Improving Adhesion During Lift-Off For Indium Bump Deposition

Side-by-side comparison of indium bump arrays without pre-clean and with pre-clean, respectively.

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To form indium bumps, a patterned mask is applied to the wafer and then indium is deposited. The patterned mask has “holes” that allow some indium to deposit directly onto the wafer, while the rest of the indium is deposited onto the mask. After indium bump deposition, the unwanted indium and the mask must be… Read More