Reduction of residual gas in a sputtering system by auxiliary sputter of rare-earth metal

In film deposition by sputtering, the oxidation and nitrification of the sputtered material lead to degradation of film quality, particularly with respect to metal sulfide films. We propose to use auxiliary sputtering as a method to produce a fresh film of rare-earth metal, usually dysprosium (Dy), that absorbs the active gases in a sputtering system, greatly reducing the background pressure and protecting the film from oxidation and nitrification effectively. The influence of the auxiliary sputtering power consumption, sputtering time, and medium gas pressure on the background pressure in the vacuum chamber is investigated in detail. If the auxiliary sputtering power exceeds 120 W and the sputtering time is more than 4 min, the background pressure is only one fourth of the ultimate pressure pumped by an oil diffusion pump. The absorption activity of the sputtered Dy film continues at least an hour after completion of the auxiliary sputter. Applied to film deposition of Ti and ZnS, this technique has been proven to be effective. For the Ti film, the total content of N and 0 is reduced from 45% to 20% when the auxiliary sputtering power of Dy is 120 W, and the sputtering time is 20 min, In the case of ZnS, the content of O-2 is reduced from 8% to 2%. (C) 2002 American Vacuum Society.