Hitoshi Yamanishi

High-performance MgO thin films for PDPs with a high-rate sputtering-deposition process

— A high-rate sputtering-deposition process for MgO thin films for PDP fabrication was recently developed. The deposition rate of the MgO thin film was about 300 nm/min which shows the possibility of production-line application. The MgO film deposited in this work has a higher density than that of other deposition processes such as electron-beam deposition and shows good discharge characteristics including firing voltage and discharge formation. These were achieved by controlling the stoichiometry and/or the impurity doping during the sputtering process.

Computational Studies of Voltage in RF Magnetron Discharge

Plasma processing is widely used in the mass production of industrial devices. A RF sputtering can be used for insulator and dielectric materials. When capacitive coupled plasma (CCP) is used for RF sputtering, the state of discharge has to be researched. The relationship between the ratio of areas of the electrodes and the ratio of DC bias voltages in magnetron sputtering was investigated, because it determines the acceleration voltage for ions, and may play an important role in sputtering. The imperfection of plasma control leads to problems in mass production. The relationship between the ratio of areas of the electrodes and the ratio of DC bias voltages in magnetron sputtering was investigated in this study. Moreover, the simulation results of some models that are different in chamber size or gas pressure were obtained. These results were compared with the experimental results and the difference was discussed. The results of simulations regarding the relationship between a bias voltage of a target (Vdc) and gas pressure with the same chamber, and between Vdc and chamber size correspond to the experimental results qualitatively. However, the changes are much less than in the experiments, especially with respect to chamber size. Considering distributions of neutral gases and radicals, the accuracy for Vdc may be improved.