IONIZED CLUSTER BEAM DEPOSITION SOURCE FOR ALUMINUM AND ALUMINUM-OXIDE FORMATION

Low-energy ion bombardment during film growth can significantly modify film properties. The advantages of using the ionized cluster beam (ICB) deposition techniques include reduced damage and high deposition rates at low temperature. The long-lived ICB source without the electron extractor is designed for an in-house experiment of aluminum deposition. In the initial experiment for aluminum metallization, low resistivity and highly preferrentially oriented Al films were obtained at acceleration voltages from 0.5 to 1.0 kV and at room temperature. This ICB source provides uniform ion current profiles within +/- 10% at deposition rates up to 0.1-mu-m/min over a 254 mm-diam substrate. It has been operated for more than 300-mu-m-thick Al film deposition without any maintenance.