Experimental research on semiconductor film deposition by filtered vacuum arcs

Vacuum arc deposition (VAD) is efficient way for different kinds of film fabrication. By means of a magnetic filter, a well deigned VAD system can produce macroparticle free films with desirable deposition rate. In order to fabricate semiconductor films, the authors designed and built a filtered vacuum arc deposition system, which contains an inner toroidal coil and a pulsed arc current source. As theoretical research, they simulated their electromagnetic field and some microparameters in the toroidal coordinate and obtained the distribution of ions and electrons in the torus, which also showed the filter efficiency. As the beginning of experimental research, some conductor and semiconductor films were deposited; the authors obtained a deposition rate of 0.3 A/s and macroparticle free conditions. The pulsed current peak was about 1000 A with a frequency of once per second, and 1000 shots for one sample. A fine silicon film on glass substrates shows the light of further investigation on amorphous silicon film deposition.