IMI’s physical vapor  deposition (PVD) equipment can deposit multiple  different materials simultaneously. Performing multiple experiments on a single substrate will accelerate and de-risk materials innovation decisions.

PVD deposition allows for rapid synthesizing/screening of new materials across a very large process space (RF and PDC power, pressure, gas compositions, temperature, etc.) and fast exploration of tertiary and quaternary material systems by co-sputtering up to four different targets. The deposition process allows for precise control of doping levels as low as 1% by co-sputtering with power modulation  and a wide temperature range for substrate and precise control of temperature.

IMI utilizes two types of deposition depending on the customer’s needs and application.

PVD site-isolated

Deposition of different materials on different dies of a wafer or isolated spots

• Excellent spot-to-spot accuracy and repeatability
• Manufacture of MOS and MIM capacitors with in-situ shadow mask, eliminating the need for any clamped masks.
• 2” sputter gun with stationery magnetron and 3” sputter gun with rotating magnetron developed by IMI for sputtering a wide range of target materials (metals oxides, metal nitrides, chalcogenides and alloys) and large process space.
• Reactive sputtering with oxygen (for metal oxides) and nitrogen (for metal nitrides), and deposition in the presence of forming gas.
• In-situ monitoring of deposition rate with Quartz Crystal Microbalance (QCM).

PVD gradient mode

IMI can fabricate highly controlled gradient films of up to 10 elements through co-sputtering. Multiple sputter guns are located in a single chamber, with independent control over power, distance, angle, and target composition.

• Gradients of many elements, with location precisely correlated to composition, formed by co-sputtering different elemental materials with guns located at different regions, operating under different conditions
• Control of the center-point and slope of the gradient along any axis by calibrating the system for each individual target material, and then adjusting deposition parameters for each prior to co-deposition.
• Broad surveys of materials compositions, or focus in on specific regions at high resolution can be performed.