Magnetron Sputter Coater

This shows how the magnetron sputter coater is used to apply thin coatings on glass or silicon for research purposes.
More info at
photonicswiki.o...

[@niuxx]

Ar is introduced as working gas. It's the positive Ar ion that is striking the target material to break the bond and sputter it out. Before introducing Ar in the system, the chamber need to be pumped down to at least 1E-6 Torr base pressure to evacuate unwanted gasses (N2, H2O, O2, ...).

[@andrewbeaton3302]

Blown away! Thank you so much for the detailed explanation!

[@deeremeyer1749]

The bottom line is you're evaporating away a minute amount of the coating material by subjecting it to intense heat in an oxygen-free environment so it vaporizes without burning, once its vaporized its a very hot "gas" and rises toward the substrate, the electrical charge difference makes the substrate acts like a "magnet" and it draws the vaporized particles to it and they "condense" into a thin film of plating metal and once sufficiently cooled after the coating is complete, they literally freeze to the surface of the sustrate. And thanks to the phenomenon of liquids seeking their own level even if upside down, the coating will be perfectly smooth and consistent as long as the substrate was perfectly level when the process started. Just like "float glass" was finally figured out and glass no longer had to rolled and spun out from a ball of hot glass and gradually worked thinner and flatter until it because sort of "flat" and consistently thick and very transparent compared to previous methods but nothing like what we have today. Because "spun" glass and even "rolled" glass will show you its flaws as you look through it. Float glass is made pouring molten glass onto "pool" of mercury which can be heated to keep it molten as it gradually does the same thing your deposited material does. It seeks its own level. Its really no different than electroplating metal in a plating tank with electricity flowing through the "electrolyte" and power going to the "electrode" of whatever metal was being plated onto the base metal and the ground connected to the base metal "anode". The current flow through the electrode heats it up and slowly vaporizes it away in a controlled process in an oxygen-free environment that's basically doing the same thing battery acid does in a lead acid battery that's being charged except its not being chemically converted from a very basic and weak chloride solution into an acidic and chemically "hot" dioxide solution as the sulfur melts off the plates where it precipitated out of the electrolyte during discharge and helped keep the plates covered and cushioned and corrosion-free while he electrolyte was at is thinnest and weakest and lowest level in the battery. As the battery charges and the electrolyte heats up, the sulfur is slowly and steadily dissolved dissolved off the plates and back into its sulfuric acid solution where it still helps cushion and protect the plates and cool them when the electrolyte is at its full level, maximum specific gravity and density and viscosity and will absorb vibrations AND attentuate the discharge process and provide the reserve power for short-term high loads when the charging system can't keep up. The acid also keeps the plates etched and free of corrosion and in peak condition for transferring heat and electrons. In electroplating, its exactly the same process only the metal being carried off the electrode to the anode stays there and its charged and "magnetic" electrons moving through the solution and into the anode where the particles get "scraped off" and stay "molten" and after the proper amount of time given the size and weight and surface area of the anode (superconductive car bumper, lol) and the temperature of the tank and the current flow through the electrode that determine how long the part stays in the plating tank. In fact, I believe the plating tank MAY be kept at a certain temperature well below the final temp but well above the boiling point of water so the "wet" which was just degreased and rinsed in distilled water after being etched in an acid solution gets boiled away as the anode goes into the plating tank so the part stays perfectly clean and has no water deposits from air drying and has no chance to get dusty or oily or oxidized since its now a very clean and ready to rust in a heartbeat piece of highly conductive metal that's ready to conduct electricity like a nice warm and pure welding rod stuck in a holder and dropped in an iron tub full of water with the ground hooked to the tub and the amps cranked to the max. I'm reasonably sure that the main thing that prevents liquid bath electroplating from working in YOUR applications is the substrate you're using, which is probably an INSULATOR and some sort of "composite" metal fiber/epoxy resin mixture that has to be in an oxygen-free and inert FLUID atmosphere that WON'T conduct OR generate transient electrical current and isn't going to continue to "charge" to a higher and higher level as the plating ( or deposition as you call it, lol) process continues until it is so positive charged it arcs back through the vaporized plating material to the "electrode". I guess I don't know how "conductive" argon gas is but I presume that since its inert and is used as as shielding gas for MIG welding, how "conductive" it is will depend on how CONDUCTIVE the vapors are its mixing with. And if the substrate is a semi-conductor AND you're achieving a high pressure in the chamber and everything is properly grounded and you're INTENTIONALLY sending electrical energy from the plating material to the substrate, the substrate/coating can't build a static electricity charge. Duh. I'm a dumbass for not thinking of that before. But I'm just an old diesel mechanic anyway and even though that's some pretty cool "technology", I still like "demonstrations" where I can SEE WHAT'S HAPPENING AS ITS HAPPENING. In the electric plating tanks you don't see MUCH but you also don't have to have a million bucks worth of equipment and a computer either, lol. Not that we don't have them and have to have them doing what I do. We do and we have. For a couple decades at least. But that doesn't mean laptops and "shops" are always THE BEST COMBINATION, lol.

[@porousorificePilot]

Thank you, this is a very interesting process!

[@heisenberg11]

Great video. Thank you for sharing!

[@tannersword1]

Is electroplating only in a solution? I think they're fairly different since electroplating deposits particles or ions onto a node from a solution or suspension, while this takes place in a vacuum and the coating isn't in solution or suspension... just from one node to another instead

[@porousorificePilot]

wonderful tutorial, thank you for sharing. I was wondering, is argon being introduced during the evacuation process to purge unwanted gasses from the load-lock and deposition chambers? Also, during the deposition process is argon being added to the chamber as the transfer takes place? Once again thanx for uploading! peace

[@meiragroovy]

Nice presentation!!! i want to deposite a AlN thin films on a polymeric substrate, using magnetron sputtering. However i have this huge problem: as the polymer has a thermal expansion coefficient away higher than AlN, cracks are always formed during the process. does someone have a great idea to save my life? I inserted a thermocouple inside the polymer (PU) to monitor its temperature during the process..

[@meiragroovy]

but even if i manage to deposit at a constant temperature, after the process with the cooling of PU cracks will be also formed:/

[@faizasalhi395]

Thank you so much for the information

[@sauroman1]

What power supply voltage/amperage is required?

[@mnothem1]

What program did you use to automate the system?

[@jasonsweet228]

Does plasma plating occur the same as electroplating? It looks opposite.

[@andrewbeaton3302]

Almost. Depends. The strength of the coating is not as strong as the billet of metal. It's not a metallurgical bond . bur still very strong if done proper.

[@fercarcas]

I have succefully sputtered copper in glass, however, when I try to plate copper (galvanic acid copper bath) to thicknen the layer, the deposit come off the glass. What possible is hapening? thanks for any help and great video.

[@Aleksanti]

Try the scotch tape test, if the tape pulls off the plating, the adhesion is not good. If it is, then you are probably using way to much current, or pH is to low so the solution dissolves copper.