Zhang, Hongmei (San Jose, CA, US)
Narasimhan, Mukundan (San Jose, CA, US)
Mullapudi, Ravi B. (San Jose, CA, US)
Demaray, Richard E. (Portola Valley, CA, US)

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08/19/2008

09/16/2005

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SpringWorks, LLC (Minnetonka, MN, US)

438/771

257/E21.273, 257/E21.462, 438/769, 257/E21.278

H01L21/31; H01L21/469

438/771, 257/E21.273, 438/788, 257/E21.462, 438/769, 204/192.12, 438/770, 204/192.15, 438/533, 257/E21.278, 438/787

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Estrada, Michelle

Finnegan, Henderson, Farabow, Garrett & Dunner, L.L.P.

This is a division of application Ser. No. 10/101,863, filed Mar. 16, 2002, which is incorporated herein by reference.

We claim:

1. A method of forming a waveguide amplifier, comprising: providing a substrate with an undercladding layer; providing an RF bias to the substrate; providing a target having a concentration of rare-earth ions opposite the substrate; supplying process gas between the target and the substrate; applying pulsed DC power where the voltage on the target oscillates between positive and negative voltages through a narrow band rejection filter that matches the RF bias to the target to deposit an optically active film; patterning the film to form a core; depositing an uppercladding layer over the core.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein providing a substrate includes providing a silicon substrate with a thermal oxide layer.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein providing a target includes providing a target having a concentration of up to about 5 cat. % of rare earth ions.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein providing a target includes providing a target of Al and Si.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein providing a target includes providing a target with a concentration of Al.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein providing a target includes providing a target with a concentration of Si.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein providing a target includes providing a target with a concentration of rare earth ions.

8. The method of claim 1, further including providing bias power to the substrate.

9. The method of claim 1, further including scanning a magnet over the target.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein scanning the magnet over the target includes moving the magnet in a first direction.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the magnet extends beyond the target in a second direction perpendicular to the first direction.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the target has a surface area greater than the surface area of the substrate.

13. The method of claim 8, wherein the filter rejects power at a frequency of the bias power.

BACKGROUND

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to deposition of oxide and oxynitride films and, in particular, to deposition of oxide and oxynitride films by pulsed DC reactive sputtering.

2. Discussion of Related Art

Deposition of insulating materials and especially optical materials is technologically important in several areas including production of optical devices and production of semiconductor devices. In semiconductor devices, doped alumina silicates can be utilized as high dielectric insulators.

The increasing prevalence of fiber optic communications systems has created an unprecedented demand for devices for processing optical signals. Planar devices such as optical waveguides, couplers, splitters, and amplifiers, fabricated on planar substrates, like those commonly used for integrated circuits, and configured to receive and process signals from optical fibers are highly desirable. Such devices hold promise for integrated optical and electronic signal processing on a single semiconductor-like substance.

The basic design of planar optical waveguides and amplifiers is well known, as described, for example, in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,119,460 and 5,563,979 to Bruce et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,613,995 to Bhandarkar et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,900,057 to Buchal et al., and U.S. Pat. No. 5,107,538 to Benton et al., to cite only a few. These devices, very generally, include a core region, typically bar shaped, of a certain refractive index surrounded by a cladding region of a lower refractive index. In the case of an optical amplifier, the core region includes a certain concentration of a dopant, typically a rare earth ion such as an erbium or praseodymium ion which, when pumped by a laser, fluoresces, for example, in the 1550 nm and 1300 nm wavelength ranges used for optical communication, to amplify the optical signal passing through the core.

As described, for example in the patents by Bruce et al., Bhandarkar et al, and Buchal et al., planar optical devices may be fabricated by process sequences including forming a layer of cladding material on a substrate; forming a layer of core material on the layer of cladding mater; patterning the core layer using a photolighotgraphic mask and an etching process to form a core ridge; and covering the core ridge with an upper cladding layer.

The performance of these planar optical devices depends sensitively on the value and uniformity of the refractive index of the core region and of the cladding region, and particularly on the difference in refractive index, Δn, between the regions. Particularly for passive devices such as waveguides, couplers, and splitters, Δn should be carefully controlled, for example to values within about 1%, and the refractive index of both core and cladding need to be highly uniform, for some applications at the fewer than parts per thousand level. In the case of doped materials forming the core region of planar optical amplifiers, it is important that the dopant be uniformly distributed so as to avoid non-radiative quenching or radiative quenching, for example by upconversion. The refractive index and other desirable properties of the core and cladding regions, such as physical and chemical uniformity, low stress, and high density, depend, of course, on the choice of materials for the devices and on the processes by which they are fabricated.

Because of their optical properties, silica and refractory oxides such as Al ₂ O ₃ , are good candidate materials for planar optical devices. Further, these oxides serve as suitable hosts for are earth dopants used in optical amplifiers. A common material choice is so-called low temperature glasses, doped with alkali metals, boron, or phosphorous, which have the advantage of requiring lower processing temperatures. In addition, dopants are used to modify the refractive index. Methods such as flame hydrolysis, ion exchange for introducing alkali ions in glasses, sputtering, and various chemical vapor deposition processes (CVD) have been used to form films of doped glasses. However, dopants such as phosphorous and boron are hygroscopic, and alkalis are undesirable for integration with electronic devices. Control of uniformity of doping in CVD processes can be difficult and CVD deposited films can have structural defects leading to scattering losses when used to guide light. In addition, doped low temperature glasses may require further processing after deposition. A method for eliminating bubbles in thin films of sodium-boro-silicate glass by high temperature sintering is described, for example, in the '995 patent to Bhandarkar et al.

Typically, RF sputtering has been utilized for deposition of oxide dielectric films. However, RF sputtering utilizes ceramic targets which are typically formed of multiple smaller tiles. Since the tiles can not be made very large, there may be a large problem of arcing between tiles and therefore contamination of the deposited film due to this arcing. Further, the reactors required for RF sputtering tend to be rather complicated. In particular, the engineering of low capacitance efficient RF power distribution to the cathode is difficult in RF systems. Routing of low capacitance forward and return power into a vacuum vessel of the reaction chamber often exposes the power path in such a way that diffuse plasma discharge is allowed under some conditions of impedance tuning of the matching networks.

Therefore, there is a need for new methods of depositing oxide and oxynitride films and for forming planar optical devices.

SUMMARY

In accordance with the present invention, a sputtering reactor apparatus for depositing oxide and oxynitride films is presented. Further, methods for depositing oxide and oxynitride films for optical waveguide devices are also presented. A sputtering reactor according to the present invention includes a pulsed DC power supply coupled through a filter to a target and a substrate electrode coupled to an RF power supply. A substrate mounted on the substrate electrode is therefore supplied with a bias from the RF power supply.

The target can be a metallic target made of a material to be deposited on the substrate. In some embodiments, the metallic target is formed from Al, Si and various rare-earth ions. A target with an erbium concentration, for example, can be utilized to deposit a film that can be formed into a waveguide optical amplifier.

A substrate can be any material and, in some embodiments, is a silicon wafer. In some embodiments, RF power can be supplied to the wafer. In some embodiments, the wafer and the electrode can be separated by an insulating glass.

In some embodiments, up to about 10 kW of pulsed DC power at a frequency of between about 40 kHz and 350 kHz and a reverse pulse time of up to about 5 μs is supplied to the target. The wafer can be biased with up to about several hundred watts of RF power. The temperature of the substrate can be controlled to within about 10° C. and can vary from about −50° C. to several hundred degrees C. Process gasses can be fed into the reaction chamber of the reactor apparatus. In some embodiments, the process gasses can include combinations of Ar, N ₂ , O ₂ , C ₂ F ₆ , CO ₂ , CO and other process gasses.

Several material properties of the deposited layer can be modified by adjusting the composition of the target, the composition and flowrate of the process gasses, the power supplied to the target and the substrate, and the temperature of the substrate. For example, the index of refraction of the deposited layer depends on deposition parameters. Further, in some embodiments stress can be relieved on the substrate by depositing a thin film of material on a back side of the wafer. Films deposited according to the present invention can be utilized to form optical waveguide devices such as multiplexers and rare-earth doped amplifiers.

These and other embodiments, along with examples of material layers deposited according to the present invention, are further described below with respect to the following figures.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES

FIGS. 1A and 1B show a pulsed DC sputtering reactor according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 shows a planar view of target utilized in a reactor as shown in FIGS. 1A and 1B.

FIG. 3 shows a cross-section view of an example target utilized in a reactor as shown in FIG. 1A and 1B.

FIG. 4 shows a flow chart of an embodiment of a process for depositing a film on a substrate according to the present invention.

FIG. 5 shows a hysterises curve of target voltage versus oxygen flow rates for an example target in an embodiment of a reactor according to the present invention.

FIG. 6 shows a photo-luminescence and lifetimes of a film deposited in a process according to the present invention as a function of after deposition anneal temperature.

FIG. 7 shows the relationship between the index of refraction of a film as a function of deposited oxide layers according to the present invention and due to oxide build-up on the target.

FIG. 8 shows a graph of the index of refraction of a film deposited according to the present invention as a function of the aluminum content in a composite Al/Si target.

FIG. 9 shows a graph of typical indices of refraction of material layers deposited according to the present invention.

FIG. 10 shows a table of indices of refraction for a silica layer deposited according to the present invention as a function of different process parameters.

FIG. 11 shows the refractive indices as a function of O ₂ /Ar ratio utilized in an Alumina process according to the present invention.

FIG. 12 shows the refractive indices as a function of DC pulsed power frequency for an Alumina layer deposited according to the present invention.

FIG. 13 shows variation in the refractive index over time during repeated depositions from a single target.

FIG. 14 shows variation in refractive index over time for repeated depositions from a target of another material layer according to the present invention.

FIG. 15 shows the variation refractive index over time for repeated depositions from a target of another material layer according to the present invention.

FIG. 16A through 16D shows a TEM film deposited according to the present invention.

FIG. 17 shows the transparency of a film deposited according to the present invention.

FIG. 18 shows an uppercladding layer deposited according to the present invention over a multiple-waveguide structure such that the deposited layer is substantially planarized.

FIG. 19 illustrates the deposition of a film over a waveguide structure.

FIGS. 20 and 21 illustrate different etch and deposition rates for deposition of films as a function of the surface angle of the film.

FIG. 22 illustrates calculation of the planarization time for a particular deposition process.

FIGS. 23 through 25 through illustrate adjustment of process parameters in order to achieve planarization of a film deposited over a waveguide structure according to the present invention.

FIG. 26 shows the gain characteristics of an erbium doped waveguide amplifier formed of films depositions according to the present invention.

FIG. 27 shows gain, insertion loss of a waveguide with an active core deposited according to the present invention.

FIG. 28 shows up-conversion constants, and lifetimes of the active core layer of FIG. 27 deposited according to the present invention.

FIG. 29 shows drift in the index of refraction with subsequent depositions for films deposited from a target according to the present invention.

FIG. 30 shows drift in the photoluminescence with subsequent depositions according to the present invention.

FIG. 31 shows drift in the excited state lifetime with subsequent depositions according to the present invention.

FIG. 32 shows stabilization of the index of refraction in subsequent depositions.

FIG. 33 shows the index of refraction of a film formed from a pure silicon target as a function of the ratio of O ₂ /N ₂ in the process gas.

In the figures, elements having the same designation have the same or similar function.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Reactive DC magnetron sputtering of nitrides and carbides is a widely practiced technique, but the reactive dc magnetron sputtering of nonconducting oxides is done rarely. Films such as aluminum oxide are almost impossible to deposit by conventional reactive DC magnetron sputtering due to rapid formation of insulating oxide layers on the target surface. The insulating surfaces charges up and result in arcing during process. This arcing can damage the power supply, produce particles and degrade the properties of deposited oxide films.

RF sputtering of oxide films is discussed in application Ser. No. 09/903,050 (the '050 application) (now U.S. Pat. No. 6,506,289) by Demaray et al, entitled “Planar Optical Devices and Methods for Their Manufacture,” assigned to the same assignee as is the present invention, herein incorporated by reference in its entirety. Further, targets that can be utilized in a reactor according to the present invention are discussed in U.S. application Ser. No. 10/101,341 (the '341 application), filed concurrently with the present disclosure, assigned to the same assignee as is the present invention, herein incorporated by reference in its entirety. A gain-flattened amplifier formed of films deposited according to the present invention are described in U.S. application Ser. No. 10/101,493 (the '493 application), filed concurrently with the present disclosure, assigned to the same assignee as is the present invention, herein incorporated by reference in its entirety. Further, a mode size converter formed with films deposited according to the present invention is described in U.S. application Ser. No. 10/101,492 (the '492 application) (now U.S. Pat. No. 6,884,327), filed concurrently with the present disclosure, assigned to the same assignee as is the present invention, herein incorporated by reference in its entirety.

FIG. 1A shows a schematic of a reactor apparatus 10 for sputtering of material from a target 12 according to the present invention. In some embodiments, apparatus 10 may, for example, be adapted from an AKT-1600 PVD (400×500 mm substrate size) system from Applied Komatsu or an AKT-4300 (600×720 mm substrate size) system from Applied Komatsu, Santa Clara, Calif. The AKT-1600 reactor, for example, has three deposition chambers connected by a vacuum transport chamber. These Komatsu reactors can be modified such that pulsed DC power is supplied to the target and RF power is supplied to the substrate during deposition of a material film.

Apparatus 10 includes a target 12 which is electrically coupled through a filter 15 to a pulsed DC power supply 14 . In some embodiments, target 12 is a wide area sputter source target, which provides material to be deposited on substrate 16 . Substrate 16 is positioned parallel to and opposite target 12 . Target 12 functions as a cathode when power is applied to it and is equivalently termed a cathode. Application of power to target 12 creates a plasma 53 . Substrate 16 is capacitively coupled to an electrode 17 through an insulator 54 . Electrode 17 can be coupled to an RF power supply 18 . Magnet 20 is scanned across the top of target 12 .

For pulsed reactive dc magnetron sputtering, as performed by apparatus 10 , the polarity of the power supplied to target 12 by power supply 14 oscillates between negative and positive potentials. During the positive period, the insulating layer on the surface of target 12 is discharged and arcing is prevented. To obtain arc free deposition, the pulsing frequency exceeds a critical frequency that depend on target material, cathode current and reverse time. High quality oxide films can be made using reactive pulse DC magnetron sputtering in apparatus 10 .

Pulsed DC power supply 14 can be any pulsed DC power supply, for example an AE Pinnacle plus 10K by Advanced-Energy, Inc. With this example supply, up to 10 kW of pulsed DC power can be supplied at a frequency of between 0 and 350 KHz. The reverse voltage is 10% of the negative target voltage. Utilization of other power supplies will lead to different power characteristics, frequency characteristics and reverse voltage percentages. The reverse time on this embodiment of power supply 14 can be adjusted between 0 and 5 μs.

Filter 15 prevents the bias power from power supply 18 from coupling into pulsed DC power supply 14 . In some embodiments, power supply 18 is a 2 MHz RF power supply, for example can be a Nova-25 power supply made by ENI, Colorado Springs, Colo.

Therefore, filter 15 is a 2 MHz band rejection filter. In some embodiments, the band width of the filter can be approximately 100 kHz. Filter 15 , therefore, prevents the 2 MHz power from the bias to substrate 16 from damaging power supply 18 .

However, both RF and pulsed DC deposited films are not fully dense and most likely have columnar structures. These columnar structures are detrimental for optical wave guide applications due to the scattering loss caused by the structure. By applying a RF bias on wafer 16 during deposition, the deposited film can be dandified by energetic ion bombardment and the columnar structure can be substantially eliminated.

In the AKT-1600 based system, for example, target 12 can have an active size of about 675.70×582.48 by 4 mm in order to deposit films on substrate 16 that have dimension about 400×500 mm. The temperature of substrate 16 can be held at between −50 C and 500 C. The distance between target 12 and substrate 16 can be between about 3 and about 9 cm. Process gas can be inserted into the chamber of apparatus 10 at a rate up to about 200 sccm while the pressure in the chamber of apparatus 10 can be held at between about 0.7 and 6 millitorr. Magnet 20 provides a magnetic field of strength between about 400 and about 600 Gauss directed in the plane of target 12 and is moved across target 12 at a rate of less than about 20-30 sec/scan. In some embodiments utilizing the AKT 1600 reactor, magnet 20 can be a race-track shaped magnet with dimension about 150 mm by 600 mm.

A top down view of magnet 20 and wide area target 12 is shown in FIG. 2. A film deposited on a substrate positioned on carrier sheet 17 directly opposed to region 52 of target 12 has good thickness uniformity. Region 52 is the region shown in FIG. 1B that is exposed to a uniform plasma condition. In some implementations, carrier 17 can be coextensive with region 52 . Region 24 shown in FIG. 2 indicates the area below which both physically and chemically uniform deposition can be achieved, where physical and chemical uniformity provide refractive index uniformity, for example. FIG. 2 indicates that region 52 of target 12 that provides thickness uniformity is, in general, larger than region 24 of target 12 providing thickness and chemical uniformity. In optimized processes, however, regions 52 and 24 may be coextensive.

In some embodiments, magnet 20 extends beyond area 52 in one direction, the Y direction in FIG. 2, so that scanning is necessary in only one direction, the X direction, to provide a time averaged uniform magnetic field. As shown in FIGS. 1A and 1B, magnet 20 can be scanned over the entire extent of target 12 , which is larger than region 52 of uniform sputter erosion. Magnet 20 is moved in a plane parallel to the plane of target 12 .

The combination of a uniform target 12 with a target area 52 larger than the area of substrate 16 can provide films of highly uniform thickness. Further, the material properties of the film deposited can be highly uniform. The conditions of sputtering at the target surface, such as the uniformity of erosion, the average temperature of the plasma at the target surface and the equilibration of the target surface with the gas phase ambient of the process are uniform over a region which is greater than or equal to the region to be coated with a uniform film thickness. In addition, the region of uniform film thickness is greater than or equal to the region of the film which is to have highly uniform optical properties such as index of refraction, density, transmission or absorptivity.

Target 12 can be formed of any materials, but is typically metallic materials such as, for example, combinations of Al and Si. Therefore, in some embodiments, target 12 includes a metallic target material formed from intermetallic compounds of optical elements such as Si, Al, Er and Yb. Additionally, target 12 can be formed, for example, from materials such as La, Yt, Ag, Au, and Eu. To form optically active films on substrate 16 , target 12 can include rare-earth ions. In some embodiments of target 12 with rare earth ions, the rare earth ions can be pre-alloyed with the metallic host components to form intermetallics. See the '341 application.

In several embodiments of the invention, material tiles are formed. These tiles can be mounted on a backing plate to form a target for apparatus 10 . FIG. 3A shows an embodiment of target 12 formed with individual tiles 30 mounted on a cooled backplate 25 . In order to form a wide area target of an alloy target material, the consolidated material of individual tiles 30 should first be uniform to the grain size of the powder from which it is formed. It also should be formed into a structural material capable of forming and finishing to a tile shape having a surface roughness on the order of the powder size from which it is consolidated. A wide area sputter cathode target can be formed from a close packed array of smaller tiles. Target 12 , therefore, may include any number of tiles 30 , for example between 2 to 20 individual tiles 30 . Tiles 30 are finished to a size so as to provide a margin of non-contact, tile to tile, 29 in FIG. 3A, less than about 0.010″ to about 0.020″ or less than half a millimeter so as to eliminate plasma processes between adjacent ones of tiles 30 . The distance between tiles 30 of target 12 and the dark space anode or ground shield 19 , in FIG. 1B can be somewhat larger so as to provide non contact assembly or provide for thermal expansion tolerance during process chamber conditioning or operation.

Several useful examples of target 12 that can be utilized in apparatus 10 according to the present invention include the following targets compositions: (Si/Al/Er/Yb) being about (57.0/41.4/0.8/0.8), (48.9/49/1.6/0.5), (92/8/0/0), (60/40/0/0), (50/50/0/0), (65/35/0/0), (70/30/0,0), and (50,48.5/1.5/0) cat. %, to list only a few. These targets can be referred to as the 0.8/0.8 target, the 1.6/0.5 target, the 92-8 target, the 60-40 target, the 50-50 target, the 65-35 target, the 70-30 target, and the 1.5/0 target, respectively. The 0.8/0.8, 1.6/0.5, and 1.5/0 targets can be made by pre-alloyed targets formed from an atomization and hot-isostatic pressing (HIPing) process as described in the '341 application. The remaining targets can be formed, for example, by HIPing. Targets formed from Si, Al, Er and Yb can have any composition. In some embodiments, the rare earth content can be up to 10 cat. % of the total ion content in the target. Rare earth ions are added to form active layers for amplification. Targets utilized in apparatus 10 can have any composition and can include ions other than Si, Al, Er and Yb, including: Zn, Ga, Ge, P, As, Sn, Sb, Pb, Ag, Au, and rare earths: Ge, Pr, Nd, Pm, Sm, Eu, Gd, Tb, Dy Ho, Er, Tm Yb and Lu.

Optically useful materials to be deposited onto substrate 16 include oxides, fluorides, sulfides, nitrides, phosphates, sulfates, and carbonates, as well as other wide band gap semiconductor materials. To achieve uniform deposition, target 12 , itself can be chemically uniform and of uniform thickness over an extended area.

Target 12 can be a composite target fabricated from individual tiles, precisely bonded together on a backing plate with minimal separation, as is discussed further with respect to FIG. 3. In some embodiments, the mixed intermetalllics can be plasma sprayed directly onto a backing plate to form target 12 . The complete target assembly can also includes structures for cooling the target, embodiments of which have been described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,565,071 to Demaray et al, and incorporated herein by reference.

Substrate 16 can be a solid, smooth surface. Typically, substrate 16 can be a silicon wafer or a silicon wafer coated with a layer of silicon oxide formed by a chemical vapor deposition process or by a thermal oxidation process. Alternatively, substrate 16 can be a glass, such as Corning 1737 (Corning Inc., Elmira, N.Y.), a glass-like material, quartz, a metal, a metal oxide, or a plastic material. Substrate 16 can be supported on a holder or carrier sheet that may be larger than substrate 16 . Substrate 16 can be electrically biased by power supply 18 .

In some embodiments, the area of wide area target 12 can be greater than the area on the carrier sheet on which physically and chemically uniform deposition is accomplished. Secondly, in some embodiments a central region on target 12 , overlying substrate 16 , can be provided with a very uniform condition of sputter erosion of the target material. Uniform target erosion is a consequence of a uniform plasma condition. In the following discussion, all mention of uniform condition of target erosion is taken to be equivalent to uniform plasma condition. Uniform target erosion is evidenced by the persistence of film uniformity throughout an extended target life. A uniformly deposited film can be defined as a film having a nonuniformity in thickness, when measured at representative points on the entire surface of a substrate wafer, of less than about 5% or 10%. Thickness nonuniformity is defined, by convention, as the difference between the minimum and maximum thickness divided by twice the average thickness. If films deposited from a target from which more than about 20% of the weight of the target has been removed continue to exhibit thickness uniformity, then the sputtering process is judged to be in a condition of uniform target erosion for all films deposited during the target life.

As shown in FIG. 1B, a uniform plasma condition can be created in the region between target 12 and substrate 16 in a region overlying substrate 16 . A plasma 53 can be created in region 51 , which extends under the entire target 12 . A central region 52 of target 12 , can experience a condition of uniform sputter erosion. As discussed further below, a layer deposited on a substrate placed anywhere below central region 52 can then be uniform in thickness and other properties (i.e., dielectric, optical index, or material concentrations).

In addition, region 52 in which deposition provides uniformity of deposited film can be larger than the area in which the deposition provides a film with uniform physical or optical properties such as chemical composition or index of refraction. In some embodiments, target 12 is substantially planar in order to provide uniformity in the film deposited on substrate 16 . In practice, planarity of target 12 can mean that all portions of the target surface in region 52 are within a few millimeters of a planar surface, and can be typically within 0.5 mm of a planar surface.

Other approaches to providing a uniform condition of sputter erosion rely on creating a large uniform magnetic field or a scanning magnetic field that produces a time-averaged, uniform magnetic field. For example, rotating magnets or electromagnets can be utilized to provide wide areas of substantially uniform target erosion. For magnetically enhanced sputter deposition, a scanning magnet magnetron source can be used to provide a uniform, wide area condition of target erosion.

As illustrated in FIG. 1A, apparatus 10 can include a scanning magnet magnetron source 20 positioned above target 12 . An embodiment of a scanning magnetron source used for dc sputtering of metallic films is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,855,744 to Halsey, et. al., (hereafter '744), which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety. The '744 patent demonstrates the improvement in thickness uniformity that is achieved by reducing local target erosion due to magnetic effects in the sputtering of a wide area rectangular target. As described in the '744 patent, by reducing the magnetic field intensity at these positions, the local target erosion was decreased and the resulting film thickness nonuniformity was improved from 8%, to 4%, over a rectangular substrate of 400×500 mm.

The process gas utilized in reactor 10 includes an inert gas, typically argon, used as the background sputtering gas. Additionally, with some embodiments of target 12 , reactive components such as, for example, oxygen may be added to the sputtering gas. Other gasses such as N ₂ , NH ₃ , CO, NO, CO ₂ , halide containing gasses other gas-phase reactants can also be utilized. The deposition chamber can be operated at low pressure, often between about 0.5 millitorr and 8-10 millitorr. Typical process pressure is below about 3-5 millitorr where there are very few collisions in the gas phase, resulting in a condition of uniform “free molecular” flow. This ensures that the gas phase concentration of a gaseous component is uniform throughout the process chamber. For example, background gas flow rates in the range of up to about 200 sccm, used with a pump operated at a fixed pumping speed of about 50 liters/second, result in free molecular flow conditions.

The distance d, in FIG. 1A, between target 12 and substrate 16 can, in some embodiments, be varied between about 4 cm and about 9 cm. A typical target to substrate distance d is about 6 cm. The target to substrate distance can be chosen to optimize the thickness uniformity of the film. At large source to substrate distances the film thickness distribution is dome shaped with the thickest region of the film at the center of the substrate. At close source to substrate distance the film thickness is dish shaped with the thickest film formed at the edge of the substrate. The substrate temperature can be held constant in the range of about −40° C. to about 550° C. and can be maintained at a chosen temperature to within about 10° C. by means of preheating substrate 16 and the substrate holder prior to deposition. During the course of deposition, the heat energy impressed upon the substrate by the process can be conducted away from substrate 16 by cooling the table on which substrate 16 is positioned during the process, as known to those skilled in the art. The process is performed under conditions of uniform gas introduction, uniform pumping speed, and uniform application of power to the periphery of the target as known to skilled practitioners.

The speed at which a scanning magnet 20 can be swept over the entire target can be determined such that a layer thickness less than about 5 to 10 Å, corresponding roughly to two to four monolayers of material, is deposited on each scan. Magnet 20 can be moved at rates up to about 30 sec/one-way scan and typically is moved at a rate of about 4 sec/one-way scan. The rate at which material is deposited depends on the applied power and on the distance d, in FIG. 1A, between the target 12 and the substrate 16 . For deposition of optical oxide materials, for example scanning speeds between about 2 sec/one-way scan across the target to 20-30 sec/scan provide a beneficial layer thickness. Limiting the amount of material deposited in each pass promotes chemical and physical uniformity of the deposited layer.

Substrate bias has been used previously to planarize RF sputtered deposited quartz films. A theoretical model of the mechanism by which substrate bias operates, has been put forward by Ting et al. (J. Vac. Sci. Technol. 15, 1105 (1978)). When power is applied to the substrate, a so-called plasma sheath is formed about the substrate and ions are coupled from the plasma. The sheath serves to accelerate ions from the plasma so that they bombard the film as it is deposited, sputtering the film, and forward scattering surface atoms, densifying the film and eliminating columnar structure. The effects of adding substrate bias are akin to, but more dramatic than, the effects of adding the low frequency RF component to the sputter source.

Biasing substrate 16 results in the deposited film being simultaneously deposited and etched. The net accumulation of film at any point on a surface depends on the relative rates of deposition and etching, which depend respectively, on the power applied to the target and to the substrate, and to the angle that the surface makes with the horizontal. The rate of etching is greatest for intermediate angles, on the order of 45 degrees, that is between about 30 and 60 degrees.

Powers to target 12 and substrate 16 can be adjusted such that the rates of deposition and etching are approximately the same for a range of intermediate angles. In this case, films deposited with bias sputtering have the following characteristics. At a step where a horizontal surface meets a vertical surface, the deposited film makes an intermediate angle with the horizontal. On a surface at an intermediate angle, there will be no net deposition since the deposition rate and etch rate are approximately equal. There is net deposition on a vertical surface.

Target 12 can have an active size of about 675.70×582.48 by 4 mm, for example, in a AKT-1600 based sys