JPS61235560A - Magnetron sputtering device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To form easily a thin film having good quality without film defects on a substrate by moving back and forth a magnet contained in a target support in parallel with a target surface to control variably the region where the magnetic field is applied to the target surface. CONSTITUTION:The inside of a vacuum vessel 1 is evacuated to a prescribed degree and thereafter a gas for sputtering is introduced into the vessel and a substrate support 7 is rotated by a rotating mechanism 8. A magnet 4 is at the same time moved back and forth at a specified period in an arrow A direction by a horizontal moving mechanism 41 with respect to the target 3 and during such movement, a shutter 9 is opened and a prescribed high voltage is impressed between the substrate 6 and the target 3 from a power source 10. The plasma-like sputter ions generated by such magnetic field are thereby focused and the sputter ions excited by the high-density plasma are made to collide against the target 3, by which the sputtering is executed. A slight amt. of the deposit of reaction deposited in the non-sputtering region is successively sputtered at the same instant so that the scattering of the deposited coarse particles is prevented.

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Summary] In a magnetron sputtering apparatus that forms a thin film on a substrate by reactive magnetron sputtering, a magnet built in the target support is attached to a target placed opposite to the substrate. are placed close to each other so as to be movable in a direction parallel to the target surface, and during film formation, the magnet is repeatedly moved in the horizontal direction at an appropriate period to partially apply a magnetic field to the target surface. This prevents the deposition of reactants that cause film defects on the surface of the non-sputtered area of the target, resulting in high quality I.
1 film.

[Industrial application field]

The present invention relates to improvements in magnetron sputtering equipment used in the manufacture of various magnetic recording media and semiconductor integrated circuit devices, and particularly relates to the improvement of magnetron sputtering equipment used in the manufacture of various magnetic recording media and semiconductor integrated circuit devices.
The present invention relates to a structure of a target support that prevents deposits, which are reactants attached to non-sputtered portions of the target surface, from scattering and adhering onto a substrate during formation of t11, thereby preventing film defects from occurring.

A magnetron sputtering device consists of a substrate-side electrode on which a thin film is to be formed and a magnetron sputter on the back side, which are placed facing each other in a reactive gas atmosphere consisting of an inert gas such as argon (Ar) gas and oxygen (02) gas. A high voltage is applied between the flat targets equipped with a plate, the generated plasma-like sputtering gas ions are focused by the magnetic field of the magnet, and the target is sputtered with Ar particles excited by the high-density plasma. With a large film deposition rate on the substrate! It forms a film.

In this way, the film deposition rate in magnetron sputtering equipment is faster than that in conventionally used various evaporation equipment or general sputtering equipment, and as it prevents increases in substrate temperature, It is widely used as a thin film forming apparatus for manufacturing various magnetic recording media, semiconductor integrated circuit elements, etc.

However, when a thin film is formed on a substrate by the reactive sputtering method using the above-mentioned apparatus, sputtering is performed in the strong magnetic field region of the target surface by the magnet, and sputtering is not performed in other regions, and conversely, the reactive sputtering material is There is a problem in that the deposits are peeled off and scattered and attached to the substrate as foreign matter, which causes defects in the produced thin film, and it is desired to solve this problem.

[Conventional technology]

FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view of the main parts of a conventional magnetron sputtering device, in which a vacuum chamber 1 equipped with an exhaust device 2 is
A target support 5 in which a target 3 is supported and has a built-in magnet 4 consisting of an annular magnet and a central cylindrical magnet magnetically coupled by a yoke, and a substrate 6 on which a thin film is to be formed facing the target support 5. A supported substrate support 7 is arranged to be rotatable by a rotation mechanism 8. 9 is a shutter.

In order to form a thin film on the surface of the substrate 6 supported on the substrate support 7 using such an apparatus, the substrate support is A predetermined voltage is applied between the target 7 and the target 3 by a high voltage power supply 10, and the shutter 9 is opened from above the target 3.

At this time, the plasma-like sputtering gas ions generated are
The sputtering gas ions, which are focused by the magnetic field generated in an arc shape on the surface of the target 3 by the magnet 4 and excited by high-density plasma, collide with the target 3, and sputter material is sputtered from the surface of the target 3, thereby sputtering the material onto the substrate. A thin film is formed on 6 at a high deposition rate.

[Problem that the invention seeks to solve]

Incidentally, in such a magnetron sputtering apparatus, as shown in FIG. 3, the magnet 4 generates an arcuate magnetic field distribution 21 on the surface of the target 3, which focuses the sputtering gas in the form of a highly dense plasma. Since the ions selectively collide with the strong magnetic field region 22 of the target 3 and are sputtered, that region 22 is eroded into a scraped state, and other regions become non-functional regions 23 with almost no sputtering. ing.

However, when a thin film is deposited on the substrate 6 by the reactive sputtering method using the sputtering apparatus as described above, most of the sputtered target material is deposited on the substrate 6, but some of the reactive sputter particles are There is a phenomenon in which reactants are deposited by colliding with gas ions in the plasma and adhering to the non-functional region 23 of the target 3.

In this case, the above-mentioned deposits not only have unstable adhesion, but also generally have high resistance, so they gradually become charged, and even cause abnormal discharge and peel off, as shown in Figure 4. The particles become coarse particles 31, scatter, and adhere to the generated film 32 of the substrate 6, forming protruding defects on the film surface.

In addition, the coarse particles 31 have weak adhesion to the produced film 32 and are easily peeled off during various steps after the sputtering process, resulting in pinhole defects.

The present invention was made in view of the above-mentioned problems.
The purpose of this is to perform sputtering while horizontally moving the magnet 4 that applies a magnetic field to the target 7 using a simple moving mechanism, so that deposits are deposited on the non-functional area 23 of the target 3. to prevent
The object of the present invention is to provide a novel magnetron sputtering device that enables the formation of thin films without film defects.

[Means for solving problems]

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention, as shown in FIG. The magnet 4 is provided so as to be movable in parallel directions by a horizontal movement mechanism 41, and is configured to variably control the area to which a magnetic field is applied to the surface of the target 3.

[Effect]

In such a device configuration, a reactive reaction bar is used.

During film formation by the method, by repeatedly moving the magnet 4 built into the target support 5 parallel to the target 3 surface at regular intervals, for example in the left-right direction, using the horizontal movement mechanism 41, the magnetic field application area to the target 3 surface can be adjusted. The very small amount of reaction deposits deposited on the non-functional area formed during this period is sequentially sputtered in small amounts, making it possible to obtain a thin film with no film defects. There is.

〔Example〕

Embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a sectional view of a main part of an embodiment of a magnetron sputtering apparatus according to the present invention.

In the figure, l is a vacuum container equipped with an exhaust device 2, and a substrate support 7 supporting a substrate 6 on which a thin film is to be formed is arranged in the vacuum container 1 so as to be rotatable by a rotation mechanism 8. A target support 5 in which a target 3 is supported and has a built-in magnet 4 consisting of an annular magnet and a central cylindrical magnet magnetically coupled by a yoke is disposed.

Further, the magnet 4 built in the target support 5 is installed so as to be movable in a direction parallel to the surface of the target 3 by a horizontal movement mechanism 41.
It is configured to variably control the area to which a magnetic field is applied to the surface.

Now, using such a device, the substrate 6 on the substrate support 7 is
To form a thin film on the surface by reactive sputtering, first, the inside of the vacuum chamber 1 is evacuated to a degree of vacuum of about 10-' torr using the exhaust device 2, and then argon (Ar) gas is introduced into the vacuum chamber 1. A sputtering gas containing a mixture of oxygen (02) and oxygen (02) gas at a predetermined volume ratio is introduced.

Next, the substrate support 7 supporting the substrate 6 is rotated by a rotation mechanism 8, and the magnet 4 is moved in the direction of arrow A by a horizontal movement mechanism 41 as shown (not limited to this example) with respect to the target 3. While repeatedly moving at a constant cycle, the shutter 9 is further opened and a predetermined high voltage is applied between the substrate 6 and the target 3 by the power source 10.

At this time, the magnet 4, which moves repeatedly at a constant cycle, also moves the area where the magnetic field is applied to the surface of the target 3, and the plasma-like sulfur gas ions generated by this magnetic field are focused, and the sulfur gas ions excited by the high-density plasma are The gas ions collide with the target 3 and are sputtered, but at the same time, a very small amount of reaction deposits deposited on the non-functional area (non-sputter area) that is moved and formed during the period is also sequentially sputtered. This eliminates the scattering phenomenon of accumulated coarse particles.

As a result, it becomes possible to form a defect-free, high-quality thin film on the substrate 6 at high speed.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As is clear from the above description, according to the magnetron sputtering apparatus according to the present invention, unnecessary reaction deposits deposited on the non-functional area (non-sputter area) of the target surface are removed by sputtering before they become thick. This eliminates the scattering of deposited coarse particles on the film formed on the substrate.
It becomes possible to easily obtain a high-quality thin film without film defects such as foreign matter protrusions and pinholes as in the past.

Therefore, it is applicable to the manufacture of magnetic recording media, semiconductor integrated circuit elements, etc., and exhibits excellent effects.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional view of essential parts showing an embodiment of a magnetron sputtering apparatus according to the present invention, FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view of essential parts for explaining a conventional magnetron sputtering apparatus, and FIG. 3 is a conventional magnetron sputtering apparatus. FIG. 4 is a perspective view for explaining the surface phenomenon of the target in FIG. In Figure 1, 1 is a vacuum vessel, 3 is a target, 4 is a magnet, 5 is a target support, 6 is a substrate, 7 is a substrate support, 41 is a horizontal moving machine 4.戎°觝明图III fig.eL#PJGN15146Net[1 82 fig.

Claims (1)

[Claims] A target support (7) that supports a target (3) and has a built-in magnet (4) in a vacuum container (1).
A substrate support (7) supporting a substrate (6) on which a thin film is to be formed is arranged opposite to this, and the substrate (6) is placed in a sputtering gas atmosphere in the vacuum container (1). In an apparatus configuration for depositing a target (3) substance on the target (3) by sputtering, the magnet (4) is provided so as to be movable in a direction parallel to the surface of the target (3) while being close to the target (3). A magnetron sputtering apparatus characterized in that a magnetic field application area to a target (3) surface is partially changed.