Showing papers by "Ulf Helmersson published in 2022"
TL;DR: In this article , the authors studied the plasma potential at a typical substrate position during the positive pulse of a bipolar high-power impulse magnetron sputtering (bipolar HiPIMS) discharge with a Cu target.
Abstract: The plasma potential at a typical substrate position is studied during the positive pulse of a bipolar high-power impulse magnetron sputtering (bipolar HiPIMS) discharge with a Cu target. The goal of the study is to identify suitable conditions for achieving ion acceleration independent on substrate grounding. We find that the time-evolution of the plasma potential during the positive pulse can be separated into several distinct phases, which are highly dependent on the discharge conditions. This includes exploring the influence of the working gas pressure (0.3–2 Pa), HiPIMS peak current (10–70 A corresponding to 0.5–3.5 A cm−2), HiPIMS pulse length (5–60 μs) and the amplitude of the positive voltage U + applied during the positive pulse (0–150 V). At low enough pressure, high enough HiPIMS peak current and long enough HiPIMS pulse length, the plasma potential at a typical substrate position is seen to be close to 0 V for a certain time interval (denoted phase B) during the positive pulse. At the same time, spatial mapping of the plasma potential inside the magnetic trap region revealed an elevated value of the plasma potential during phase B. These two plasma potential characteristics are identified as suitable for achieving ion acceleration in the target region. Moreover, by investigating the target current and ion saturation current at the chamber walls, we describe a simple theory linking the value of the plasma potential profile to the ratio of the available target electron current and ion saturation current at the wall.
5 citations
TL;DR: In this paper , a synchronized positive reversed pulse (Urev) was employed on the sputtering target itself, after the end of the main HiPIMS pulse, if the substrate is grounded.
Abstract: Selective ion acceleration using a synchronized substrate bias is a common way to tailor the microstructure and intrinsic stress of films grown by high-power impulse magnetron sputtering (HiPIMS), owing to the high degree of sputtered metal ionization and the inherent time separation between different ionic species in the ion fluxes at the substrate position. Here we show that it is possible to achieve selective acceleration of ionic species with different ion masses by employing a synchronized positive reversed pulse (Urev) on the sputtering target itself, after the end of the main HiPIMS pulse, i.e., bipolar HiPIMS (BP-HiPIMS), if the substrate is grounded. The evidence is provided by growing (Al,Cr)2O3 films using BP-HiPIMS where the time delay (Δτacc) between the HiPIMS-pulse and the positive reversed pulse as well as the length of the positive reversed pulse (τacc) are varied. In this way, both film stresses and film crystal structures are altered. The obvious drawback of BP-HiPIMS, that the ion-accelerating potential cannot be applied during the HiPIMS-pulse itself, has been minimized by using short HiPIMS pulses of 20 μs during which the peak of the substrate ion current density (Js) occurs well after the end of the HiPIMS-pulse indicating that the main portion of the ion fluxes can be accelerated by Urev. An important observation is that the temporal evolution of Js did not change as the different reversed pulse parameters (Urev, Δτacc, and τacc) were altered. This is evidence, that in these experiments, the dominating ion-acceleration occurs in the plasma sheath at the substrate, i.e., similar to the case when synchronized substrate bias is utilized.
3 citations