Vorarlberg University
of Applied Sciences

Material coating

For more than a decade, material coating has been an essential core competence at the FHV. Dry etching using Deep Reactive Ion Etching (DRIE) and coating using Physical Vapor Deposition (PVD) in particular are important pillars of our research and development efforts.

Dry Etching, (D)RIE - (Deep) Reactive Ion Etching

With adixen's DRIE - system "AMS 100 i-Speeder" smallest topographic structures for micro and nano system technology can be fabricated, preferably on silicon wafers). DRIE includes both chemical and physical etching mechanisms, the respective proportions of which can be precisely controlled, so that isotropic (direction-independent) and also anisotropic (directional) etchings are possible. Geometric structuring of the wafer surface is provided by masking applied lithographically before the start of the process. RIE delivers very good results even for very fine structures with dimensions well below 100 nm. DRIE (Deep Reactive Ion Etching) is an RIE modification for deep etching of silicon ("Bosch™ process"). With this method, the highest aspect ratios can be achieved.

Some application examples:

Micro- and nanometer-scale structures for electrochemical biosensors
Manufacturing structures for microfluidic systems
Structures for micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS)

Manufacture of stamps for impression with polymer materials (casting, injection molding)

Specifications:

Wafer size: 100 mm
Etch depth: max. 500 µm

Aspect ratios (width / depth): max. 1:60 (depending on material)
Resolution: better 100 nm (mask dependent)

Services:

Structuring of wafers by means of RIE or DRIE

Feasibility tests in the field of Si structuring

Coating (Physical Vapor Deposition - PVD)

PVD coating enables the deposition of thin films with thicknesses ranging from a few nanometers to a few micrometers on a wide variety of - preferably flat ("2D") - substrates and surfaces. To carry out the vacuum-based processes required for this purpose, two technology variants are available at the FZMT, namely thermal evaporation and sputtering (i.e. "cathode sputtering"), which are very flexible with regard to the selection of the coating material and thus enable the deposition of a wide variety of coatings.

Some application examples:

Metallizations for lift-off processes
Starting layers for electroplating processes
Masking for RIE / DRIE processes

Insulating / dielectric layers
Multi-layer layer stacks of different materials

Specifications:

Thermal Vapor Deposition - Balzers BAK 550

Evaporation source: 10 kW electron beam evaporator with 4-pass crucible,
enables the evaporation of almost any material,

Real-time monitoring of coating thickness using oscillating quartz oscillator (accuracy better than 1nm)
Maximum substrate size: 160 x 160 mm (L x W), other sizes + shapes by arrangement
Process temperature: 50 - 200 °C
Layer thicknesses: 5 nm - 500 nm

Sputtering - Oerlikon LLS EVO

Two-chamber sputtering system with recipe-based automatic process control
Substrate pretreatment (bakeout up to 120 °C, plasma cleaning) possible in process
5 Planarmagnetron sputtering sources, power: max. 5 kW pulsed DC (0 - 350 kHz)
Sputter modes: metal mode (Ar as process gas), reactive mode (O2 or N2 addition)
Standard available coating materials: Al, Cu, Ti, Ni, Si, Cr, Al2O3, TiO2, SiO2, Si3N4

Maximum substrate size: 150 x 250 mm (L x W), other sizes + shapes by arrangement
Process temperature: ≈ 50 °C during coating
Coating thicknesses: 10 nm - 1 µm