[labnetwork] Iridium Oxide Reactive Process Problems

[Carlos Gramajo]

Hi everyone,

I would like to thank everyone who responded with suggestions on how to
reduce flakes for this process.
I just wanted to let you all know what I ended up doing and what were the
results.

I used a fused silica wafer 180 µm thick and made a gasket that would cover
the gap. I took measurements straight from the gun and I used the laser
cutter to cut the gasket from the wafer.

Before installation of the gasket we kept having to open the chamber every
3-4 uses to clean the flakes that were shorting the gun out by vacuuming
and blowing nitrogen in the gap to force flakes that had lodged themselves
in there. This process usually took a bit of time and we were afraid that
one day we may not be able to dislodge flakes from inside the gap, which
would require a more involved maintenance routine.

After installation of the gasket, I am happy to say that users were able to
use the system about 15 times without interruption and it would presumably
continue to work if we didn't change the target source to a different
material.

When we changed the target we removed the gasket, which we found to be
broken, maybe due to thermal stresses, but it still covered the majority of
the gap, so we are going to have to make another one when we put the Ir
target back on. Right now I am looking for a tougher material with the same
properties, so that we can make this more permanent, but as a proof of
concept, it worked really well.

Best regards and again thank you for your input,

Carlos

On Tue, Apr 19, 2022 at 4:12 PM Carlos Gramajo <cg70 at rice.edu> wrote:

> Hello everyone,
>
> We have a sputter chamber at Rice in which we are doing a reactive
> Iridium Oxide process with an Iridium target. This process produces a lot
> of flakes that get lodged in all sorts of crevices and end up shorting the
> system out at the base of the gun, under the target. We usually solve the
> problem by vacuuming and blowing nitrogen to dislodge stubborn flakes out
> of there.
>
> I wonder if there might be a better solution to prevent that from
> happening in the first place: maybe a ceramic insert or possibly vacuum
> grease, to keep the flakes from getting in there. I just don't know if that
> will cause any damage to the system or otherwise prevent it from performing
> it job.
>
> Does anyone else have this problem and a solution for it?
>
> Thank you,
>
> --
> Carlos Gramajo
> Cleanroom Research Scientist
> Shared Equipment Authority (SEA), Rice University
> Cell: 713-743-8115; Office: 713-348-8243; cg70 at rice.edu
>


-- 
Carlos Gramajo
Cleanroom Research Scientist
Shared Equipment Authority (SEA), Rice University
Cell: 713-743-8115; Office: 713-348-8243; cg70 at rice.edu
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