Thermal Evaporator brochure0 pages

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NTE-3000 andNTE-4000 THERMAL EVAPORATOR SYSTEMS

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Evaporation is a powerful technique for thick metal or

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organic coatings. It is a vapor phase deposition

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technique and requires good vacuum. The system must

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be capable of going to low background pressures and

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have fast pump down to remove out gassing rapidly

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during heating of the sample.

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High temperatures must be reached to melt the material

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under vacuum to coat the substrate. Typically any

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material where evaporation temperature is less than

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2000 °C at about 10"5 Torr can be evaporated; however,

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appropriate crucibles (Alumina, Quartz, Boron Nitride

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etc) must be chosen. Organic materials require lower

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temperatures about 600°C with better control.

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However, some materials have low sticking coefficient

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making it difficult to build a film. The substrate is

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typically not heated but for some applications substrate

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heating may be necessary to control the stoichiometry.

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Nano-Master Thermal Evaporation Technology:

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NTE-3000

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Another process for coating films is sputtering. In contrast to evaporation, the sputtering is more appropriate where substrate

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temperatures have to be low or thinner films with varying composition or dielectric films are needed. Sputtering requires higher

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pressures and Argon atmosphere; but generally speaking, both evaporation and sputtering processes require systems with many

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common features.

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The NTE-3000 Table Top Evaporation System and NTE-4000 Stand Alone Evaporation System share a common platform with

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our sputtering systems; cabinets, chambers, vacuum pumping package, and computer control architecture are same in both

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evaporation and sputtering systems except one uses magnetrons and the other heated crucibles. As a result, many technologies that

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we have developed for our sputtering systems are also available for our Thermal Evaporators: Platens with heating, rotation, and

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bias; plasma cleaning prior to coating, thickness monitoring, and sequentially or simultaneously operating multiple sources; Bell

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jar, Aluminum or Stainless Steel chambers; load-lock and automatic load unload mechanisms.

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NTE-3000 looks very similar to Nano-Master NSC-3000, except the platen is on top and samples are held face down. Because of

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many commonalties we are also able to offer dual sputtering and evaporation capabilities on NTS series systems (NTS-3000, NTS-

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4000). Having a computer controlled system, we can provide both sputtering and evaporation capabilities in the same system and

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in the same footprint, making possible to take advantage of both sputtering and evaporation techniques without breaking vacuum.

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Another unique feature of Nano-Master, evaporation system is to control the duration of the heater current rather than the

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amplitude. The system is equipped with a solid state current control circuitry as opposed to a variac as in many other systems. In

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this system, the duration of the current or the RMS value is controlled. User can select a set point, which in effect sets the portion

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of the half period the AC voltage will appear across Tungsten heater wires. As a result, a very precise and a fast control of current

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is achieved, and therefore a closed loop temperature control is possible. Furthermore, the current control and therefore the

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temperature control, meet stringent requirement of the organic evaporation whether it is used for organics or metals.

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We have measured the RMS voltage, the RMS current, the temperature in the crucible TB, and the temperature at the

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thermocouple Tc in contact with the bottom of the crucible. The experimental heating results with empty crucibles are shown

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below. These experiments are carried at 208V line voltage. Current and voltage (not shown) measured with true RMS meter.

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NANO-MASTER 3019 Alvin Devane Blvd. Suite 300, Austin, TX 78741;

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Tel. (512) 385-4552; Fax (512) 385-4900; http://www.nanomaster.com; main@nanomaster.com

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