Publication Date

Fall 1996

Degree Type

Master's Project

Degree Name

Master of Science in Engineering (MSE)

Department

General Engineering

First Advisor

Dr. Guna Selvaduray

Abstract

Alumina is used as undercoat, gap, and overcoat layer in thin film head manufacturing. This project was a study of effect of sputter deposition parameters such as target power, substrate bias, pressure, deposition temperature, and preheating of the wafer on the alumina film properties. It was found that argon inclusion in the film greatly influences the film structure. Argon inclusion increases with substrate bias. The alumina film showed higher etch rates and stress at higher argon inclusion, A designed experiment showed that preheating the wafer improves the adhesion of the alumina film. The confirmation run shows that there was no gap cracking when wafers were preheated. The undercoat and gap layers should be deposited at 20 volts due to etch rate constraints. The overcoat layer should be deposited at 100 to 120 volts due to better step coverage. All three layers should be deposited below 65 °C to obtain a low stress film.

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