Defects from substrate particles depend on the sputter deposition process

With successive IC generations, thin-film defects nucleated small particles become a greater concern. We have observed that the angle of incidence of the deposition flux can have a major effect on the evolution of film defect s nucleated by small substrate particles. Using a new technique to deposit small spheres on Si wafers, we observed that a significant reduction in def ect size occurs when near-normal-incidence ion-beam sputtering is used to d eposit thin films, and a significant increase in defect size occurs when of f-normal-incidence ion-beam sputtering or conventional magnetron sputtering is used to deposit the films.