ESG/ESM 339 Thin Film Processing of Advanced Materials

02/09/99 Homework

History of Continuing Laboratory Development

Thin film processing represents a highly versatile method of manufacturing new advanced materials, often of a highly metastable nature. Just as many industries , semiconductors, optics, photovoltaics etc., have utilized thin film technology to develop and manufacture new materials, so higher education can take advantage of thin film processing to explore new structure-property-performance relationships, which represent the core of materials science and engineering. Additionally, we note that microfabrication is becoming increasingly a major employer of engineers from many disciplines. We therefore have a responsibility to prepare students for industrial internships and ultimately the job market through, as far as possible 'hands on learning' to complement formal lectures.

In ESG/ESM 339 we offer students the opportunity to put into practical application the principles of materials science and engineering, vacuum science and engineering, materials characterization through the design and fabrication of thin film materials. The skills learned provide students, for the first time, the ability to make a very broad range of materials, from alloys to compound phases such as nitrides, silicides and diamond-like nanocomposites. The students will have 'hands on' experience with:

• Effusion
• Evaporation
• Sputtering
• Ion Assisted Deposition
• Solid State Reactions
• Interdiffusion
• Surface Cleaning technology
• Surface Analysis ( XPS, SAM, SEM, EDAX)
• Vacuum systems: their design and operation

This class introduces students to fundamental aspects of thin film materials design, fabrication and characterization. It addresses recent developments in microelectronics, superconductivity, and the surface engineering of bulk alloys. This class has not to date had a formal laboratory associated with it. The intention is to incorporate a laboratory component to serve the following purposes:

• to provide hands-on design and construction experience of basic vacuum systems relevant to thin film deposition,
• to provide hands-on experience of thin film deposition using a donated unit,
• to provide hands-on experience of surface analysis of thin film deposits.

Effectiveness of Present Equipment:

We have acquired components for and built a small thin processing system attached to an electron spectrometer. This system was partially supported from funds supporting this course and the rest found from research funding. The system was designed and constructed by three student who graduated from ESG 339 last year and have continued with thin film processing for the senior design project. The system is capable of evaporation, sputtering and ion assisted deposition. Additionally, the substrates can be sputter cleaned and examined by XPS without breaking vacuum. Effusion of organic vapors can be achieved through needle valves and delivery tubing. This will be used for the purpose of diamond-like coating next year. Hence, we have an excellent cost effective platform upon which we can perform a range of experiments with different groups of students. Added to this equipment is an ion pumped facility that is being developed for simple evaporation and sputtering, which has been donated to this class, by another faculty member. This system can deposit films via thermal evaporation or dual DC-magnetron sputtering. Another UHV system, donated from a different faculty member, should soon be on-line for student experiments (the details of which are still to be determined). The two UHV systems, our existing bell-jar system, the vacuum furnace and the Scanning Electron Microscope really enable the students to get 'hands-on' experience.

For more information, please contact Prof. Clive Clayton.

01/21/98 JQ.