A method of depositing a backside film layer on a backside of a substrate includes loading a substrate having one or more films deposited on a front side of the substrate onto a substrate support of a processing chamber, depositing, from the sputter target, a target material on the backside of the substrate to form a backside layer on the backside of the substrate, and applying an RF bias to an electrode disposed within the substrate support while depositing the target material. The front side of the substrate faces the substrate support and is spaced from a top surface of the substrate support, and a backside of the substrate faces a sputter target of the processing chamber.

An electromagnetic separation type coating device is provided, and belongs to the technical field of vacuum coating. The device comprises a main vacuum cavity, the front side and the rear side of the main vacuum cavity are each provided with a vacuum cavity door, middle positions of the front vacuum cavity door and the rear vacuum cavity door are each provided with a set of magnetron sputtering targets, and the two sets of magnetron sputtering targets are symmetrically arranged; two sets of ion sources are symmetrically arranged on the outer walls of the left side and the right side of the main vacuum cavity, and two sets of magnetic induction coils are symmetrically arranged at two sides of each set of ion sources, respectively; a vacuum pump set is connected to the top of the main vacuum cavity, a workpiece rest is installed at the bottom in the main vacuum cavity, and is used for installing a to-be-deposited sample piece; and an auxiliary anode is further installed in the main vacuum cavity. An electromagnetic separation type coating method is further provided. The electromagnetic separation type coating device and method provided by the present disclosure have the advantages of effectively improving the three-dimensional space plasma density, increasing ion energy, and obtaining a thin film with excellent performance.

The present invention provides a magnetron system, comprising a baseplate assembly. The baseplate assembly defining a housing portion and a power feedthrough. A sputtering target is disposed within the housing portion of the baseplate assembly. An electromagnetic assembly is disposed within the housing portion of the baseplate assembly. The electromagnetic assembly comprising a plurality of electromagnet pairs and a plurality of magnet pairs, wherein the plurality of electromagnet pairs and the plurality of magnet pairs are arranged in an alternating order such that at least one electromagnet pair of the plurality of electromagnet pairs is juxtapositioned between two magnet pairs of the plurality of magnet pairs, and at least one magnet pair of the plurality of magnet pairs is juxtapositioned between two electromagnet pairs of the plurality of electromagnet pairs.

A process for coating a substrate with tantalum nitride by the high-power impulse magnetron sputtering technique, wherein a tantalum target is used and wherein the coating of the substrate is carried out in an atmosphere containing nitrogen, the bias of the target being controlled during the coating by imposing on it the superposition of a continuous bias at a potential between −300 V and −100 V and of a pulsed bias whose pulses have a potential between −1200 V and −400 V.

A magnetron plasma sputtering arrangement including an evacuable chamber, wherein in the evacuable chamber a tuning electrode, operatively connected to a biasing source with respect to ground, and including an aperture defining at least one axis of length, is arranged in a flow path for plasma between a sputtering head and a substrate. A plasma sputtered material originating at a sputtering target will traverse the aperture before depositing onto the surface of the substrate as a thin film.

A sputtering apparatus includes a base on which a substrate is mounted, an annular member disposed at an outer periphery of the base to surround a side surface and a backside of the substrate without in contact with the substrate, and an edge cover that covers an outer edge of an upper surface of the substrate mounted on the base. The annular member has a first surface facing the backside of the substrate mounted on the base with a gap, a second surface facing the side surface of the substrate mounted on the base with a gap, and a tapered surface formed at a corner portion between the first surface and the second surface.

An electrically and magnetically enhanced ionized physical vapor deposition (I-PVD) magnetron apparatus and method is provided for sputtering material from a cathode target on a substrate, and in particular, for sputtering ceramic and diamond-like coatings. The electrically and magnetically enhanced magnetron sputtering source has unbalanced magnetic fields that couple the cathode target and additional electrode together. The additional electrode is electrically isolated from ground and connected to a power supply that can generate positive, negative, or bipolar high frequency voltages, and is preferably a radio frequency (RF) power supply. RF discharge near the additional electrode increases plasma density and a degree of ionization of sputtered material atoms.

A film forming apparatus includes a target holder that holds a target facing a substrate and extending in a predetermined direction on a horizontal plane, a magnet unit including a pair of magnet assemblies each having magnets and disposed at a back side of the target holder, a pair of shielding members disposed between the target and the substrate to extend from the target toward the substrate, and a moving mechanism configured to reciprocate the magnet unit between one end and the other end in the predetermined direction. The magnet assemblies are arranged along the predetermined direction, and each of the shielding members is disposed, in plan view, on a boundary line between a first region where only one of the magnet assemblies passes during a reciprocating motion of the magnet unit and a second region where both of the magnet assemblies pass therethrough during the reciprocating motion.

Methods and apparatus for processing a substrate are provided herein. For example, a method for processing a substrate comprises supplying pulsed DC power to a target disposed in a processing volume of a processing chamber for depositing sputter material onto a substrate, during a pulse off time, determining if a reverse current is equal to or greater than at least one of a first threshold or a second threshold different from the first threshold, and if the reverse current is equal to or greater than the at least one of the first threshold or second threshold, generate a pulsed DC power shutdown response, and if the reverse current is not equal to or greater than the at least one of the first threshold or second threshold, continue supplying pulsed DC power to the target.

Apparatus and methods for improving film uniformity in a physical vapor deposition (PVD) process are provided herein. In some embodiments, a PVD chamber includes a pedestal disposed within a processing region of the PVD chamber, the pedestal having an upper surface configured to support a substrate thereon, a first motor coupled to the pedestal, a lid assembly comprising a first target, a first magnetron disposed over a portion of the first target, and in a region of the lid assembly that is maintained at atmospheric pressure, a first actuator configured to translate the first magnetron in a first direction, a second actuator configured to translate the first magnetron in a second direction, and a system controller that is configured to cause the first magnetron to translate along at least a portion of a first path by causing the first actuator and second actuator to simultaneously translate the first magnetron.