Pierre-Antoine Cormier

Measuring the energy flux at the substrate position during magnetron sputter deposition processes

In this work, the energetic conditions at the substrate were investigated in dc magnetron sputtering (DCMS), pulsed dc magnetron sputtering (pDCMS), and high power impulse magnetron sputtering (HiPIMS) discharges by means of an energy flux diagnostic based on a thermopile sensor, the probe being set at the substrate position. Measurements were performed in front of a titanium target for a highly unbalanced magnetic field configuration. The average power was always kept to 400 W and the probe was at the floating potential. Variation of the energy flux against the pulse peak power in HiPIMS was first investigated. It was demonstrated that the energy per deposited titanium atom is the highest for short pulses (5 μs) high pulse peak power (39 kW), as in this case, the ion production is efficient and the deposition rate is reduced by self-sputtering. As the argon pressure is increased, the energy deposition is reduced as the probability of scattering in the gas phase is increased. In the case of the HiPIMS dis...

On the measurement of energy fluxes in plasmas using a calorimetric probe and a thermopile sensor

Two different diagnostics for the determination of the energy influx in plasma processes were used to characterize an ion beam source and an asymmetric RF discharge. The related energy fluxes were measured in dependence on the ion energy and on the RF power, respectively. The first sensor, called HFM (Heat Flux Microsensor) is a thermopile which allows for direct energy flux measurements. With the second sensor, a calorimetric probe, the energy influx has been calculated from the temporal temperature evolution preliminarily registered. Although the working principle of both sensors is different, the obtained results are in good agreement. In the ion beam (<1.5 keV)) rather high energy influxes are achieved (up to 700 mW cm−2), whereas the values measured in the asymmetric RF discharge were lower than 50 mW cm−2 for discharge powers in the range 10–100 W. The performances and limitations of both sensors are compared and discussed.