776 results about "Ion bombardment" patented technology

A method of removing at least a portion of a silicon oxide material is disclosed. The silicon oxide is removed by exposing a semiconductor structure comprising a substrate and the silicon oxide to an ammonium fluoride chemical treatment and a subsequent plasma treatment, both of which may be effected in the same vacuum chamber of a processing apparatus. The ammonium fluoride chemical treatment converts the silicon oxide to a solid reaction product in a self-limiting reaction, the solid reaction product then being volatilized by the plasma treatment. The plasma treatment includes a plasma having an ion bombardment energy of less than or equal to approximately 20 eV. An ammonium fluoride chemical treatment including an alkylated ammonia derivative and hydrogen fluoride is also disclosed.

Process for the preparation of thin monocrystalline or polycrystalline semiconductor material films, characterized in that it comprises subjecting a semiconductor material wafer having a planar face to the three following stages: a first stage of implantation by bombardment (2) of the face (4) of the said wafer (1) by means of ions creating in the volume of said wafer a layer (3) of gaseous microbubbles defining in the volume of said wafer a lower region (6) constituting the mass of the substrate and an upper region (5) constituting the thin film, a second stage of intimately contacting the planar face (4) of said wafer with a stiffener (7) constituted by at least one rigid material layer, a third stage of heat treating the assembly of said wafer (1) and said stiffener (7) at a temperature above that at which the ion bombardment (2) was carried out and sufficient to create by a crystalline rearrangement effect in said wafer (1) and a pressure effect in the said microbubbles, a separation between the thin film (5) and the mass of the substrate (6).

The present invention generally provides methods and apparatuses that are adapted to form a high quality dielectric gate layer on a substrate. Embodiments contemplate a method wherein a metal plasma treatment process is used in lieu of a standard nitridization process to form a high dielectric constant layer on a substrate. Embodiments further contemplate an apparatus adapted to “implant” metal ions of relatively low energy in order to reduce ion bombardment damage to the gate dielectric layer, such as a silicon dioxide layer and to avoid incorporation of the metal atoms into the underlying silicon. In general, the process includes the steps of forming a high-k dielectric and then terminating the surface of the deposited high-k material to form a good interface between the gate electrode and the high-k dielectric material. Embodiments of the invention also provide a cluster tool that is adapted to form a high-k dielectric material, terminate the surface of the high-k dielectric material, perform any desirable post treatment steps, and form the polysilicon and/or metal gate layers.

The present invention generally provides methods and apparatuses that are adapted to form a high quality dielectric gate layer on a substrate. Embodiments contemplate a method wherein a metal plasma treatment process is used in lieu of a standard nitridization process to form a high dielectric constant layer on a substrate. Embodiments further contemplate an apparatus adapted to “implant” metal ions of relatively low energy in order to reduce ion bombardment damage to the gate dielectric layer, such as a silicon dioxide layer and to avoid incorporation of the metal atoms into the underlying silicon. In general, the process includes the steps of forming a high-k dielectric and then terminating the surface of the deposited high-k material to form a good interface between the gate electrode and the high-k dielectric material.

A plasma processing system includes a source of plasma, a substrate and a shutter positioned in close proximity to the substrate. The substrate/shutter relative disposition is changed for precise control of substrate/plasma interaction. This way, the substrate interacts only with a fully established, stable plasma for short times required for nanoscale processing of materials. The shutter includes an opening of a predetermined width, and preferably is patterned to form an array of slits with dimensions that are smaller than the Debye screening length. This enables control of the substrate/plasma interaction time while avoiding the ion bombardment of the substrate in an undesirable fashion. The relative disposition between the shutter and the substrate can be made either by moving the shutter or by moving the substrate.

The present invention relates to a field emission device comprising an anode and a cathode, wherein said cathode includes carbon nanotubes which have been treated with an ion beam. The ion beam may be any ions, including gallium, hydrogen, helium, argon, carbon, oxygen, and xenon ions. The present invention also relates to a field emission cathode comprising carbon nanotubes, wherein the nanotubes have been treated with an ion beam. A method for treating the carbon nanotubes and for creating a field emission cathode is also disclosed. A field emission display device containing carbon nanotube which have been treated with an ion beam is further disclosed.

A magnetic recording medium is formed with a distribution of low coercivity regions functioning as a transition pattern for servo information capable of being sensed by a read/write head by exposing a masked magnetic layer to ions to change the coercivity of the exposed magnetic layer without substantially affecting the topography of the magnetic layer.

Embodiments of the present invention include forming a series of substantially radially extending low coercivity regions used to divide the magnetic layer into a plurality of sectors comprising substantially concentric circumferentially extending data tracks by exposing a masked magnetic layer having a high coercivity, i.e. from about 2000 Oe to about 10000 Oe, to one or more heavy atom ion bombardments of gaseous ions, e.g. argon ions, at a dose of about 1×10¹³ atoms/cm² to about 9×10¹⁵ atoms/cm² having an implantation energy of about 10 KeV to about 50 KeV.

The invention relates to an activated metallic, semiconductor, polymer, composite and/or ceramic substrate, the substrate being bound through a mixed or graded interface to a hydrophilic polymer surface that is activated to enable direct covalent binding to a functional biological molecule, the polymer surface comprising a sub-surface that includes a plurality of cross-linked regions, as well as to such activated substrates that have been functionalised with a biological molecule and to devices comprising such functionalised substrates. Such substrates can be produced by a method comprising steps of: a. exposing a surface of the substrate to any or more of (i) to (iii): (i) plasma ion implantation with carbon containing species; (ii) co-deposition under conditions in which substrate material is deposited with carbon containing species while gradually reducing substrate material proportion and increasing carbon containing species proportion; (iii) deposition of a plasma polymer surface layer with energetic ion bombardment; incubating the surface treated according to step (a) with a desired biological molecule.

The invention discloses a method for preparing a multi-metal element doped diamond film, which is characterized by comprising the following steps: removing a pollution layer on matrix surface by using the ultrasonic cleaning technology, carrying out ion beam bombardment cleaning on the matrix surface by using inert gas ion beam produced by an ion source, carrying out metal ion bombardment cleaning on the matrix surface by using metal ions produced by a cathodic arc source under a condition of high workpiece negative bias, preparing a gradient transition layer by using a cathodic arc deposition or ion beam assisted magnetron sputtering (IBAMS), and synthesizing a multi-metal element doped DLC film on the transition layer by using ion beam deposition and mosaic composite target magnetron sputtering, wherein the ion beam deposition is realized by introducing carbon gas in the ion source; and the mosaic composite target doped multiple metal are used, and the main body material of the mosaic composite target can be any one of Ti, Cr, W, Zr, Nb and Ta, and the mosaic block material is one or more of other metals except the above main body materials.

Methods are provided for fabricating an electronic device having at least one sidewall spacer formed adjacent a selected surface. In one embodiment, the method includes the step of depositing spacer material adjacent first and second raised structures formed on the substrate and extending along substantially perpendicular axes. The method further includes the step of selectively removing spacer material laterally adjacent one of the first raised structure and the second raised structure. During the step of selectively removing, the electronic device is bombarded with ions from a first predetermined direction forming a first predetermined grazing angle with the substrate such that the spacer material adjacent a first sidewall of the first raised structure is substantially exposed to the ion bombardment while the spacer material adjacent opposing sidewalls of the second raised structure is substantially shielded therefrom.

The coating of internal surfaces of a workpiece is achieved by connecting a bias voltage such that the workpiece functions as a cathode and by connecting an anode at each opening of the workpiece. A source gas is introduced at an entrance opening, while a vacuum source is connected at an exit opening. Pressure within the workpiece is monitored and the resulting pressure information is used for maintaining a condition that exhibits the hollow cathode effect. Optionally, a pre-cleaning may be provided by introducing a hydrocarbon mixture and applying a negative bias to the workpiece, so as to sputter contaminants from the workpiece using argon gas. Argon gas may also be introduced during the coating processing to re-sputter the coating, thereby improving uniformity along the length of the workpiece. The coating may be a diamond-like carbon material having properties which are determined by controlling ion bombardment energy.

A method is disclosed for forming multi-layered structures on polymeric or other materials that provide optical functions or protect underlying layers from exposure to oxygen and water vapor. Novel devices are also disclosed that may include both multi-layered protective structures and AMOLED display, OLED lighting or photovoltaic devices. The protective multi-layer structure itself may be made by depositing successively on a substrate at least three very thin layers of material with different density or composition. In some methods for deposition of such film, the layers are deposited by varying the energy of ion bombardment per unit thickness of the film Any layer of the structure may include one or more of the materials: silicon nitride, silicon oxide, silicon oxynitride, or metallic nitride or oxide. Specific commercial applications that benefit from this include manufacturing of photovoltaic devices or organic light emitting diode devices (OLED) including lighting and displays.

The invention relates to a non-vacuum solar spectrum selective absorption coating and a preparation method thereof. The preparation method comprises the following steps: (1) selecting copper or stainless steel with low infrared emissivity as a base material; (2) selecting oxide resistant to high-temperature oxidation, nitride and complex or doped oxide as a film material, wherein a metal or an alloy serves as a bonding force increased layer, metal nitride or pure metal serves as a high infrared reflecting layer, an absorption layer is composed of two conducting particle ceramic layers with different metal nitride conducting particle volume fractions, and aluminium nitride and aluminium oxide serve as an antireflection layer; (3) controlling the components and contents of different film materials by controlling gas flow and sputtering power; (4) cleaning the base material before the base material is placed into a vacuum chamber, and carrying out argon ion bombarding on the surface of the base material before sputtering is carried out; and (5) obtaining a multilayer coating, wherein the thickness of the coating is less than 500nm, and the coating has high absorption rate alpha (0.9-0.97) in the solar spectrum range (0.3-2.5microns) and has extremely low emissivity epsilon (0.02-0.18) in the infrared region (2.5-50microns).

The invention relates to a process for fabricating a monolayer or multilayer metal structure in LIGA technology, in which a photoresist layer is deposited on a flat metal substrate, a photoresist mold is created by irradiation or electron or ion bombardment, a metal or alloy is electroplated in this mold, the electroformed metal structure is detached from the substrate and the photoresist is separated from this metal structure, wherein the metal substrate is used as an agent involved in the forming of at least one surface of the metal structure other than that formed by the plane surface of the substrate.

An ion beam deposition method is provided for manufacturing a coated substrate with improved abrasion resistance, and improved lifetime. According to the method, the substrate is first chemically cleaned to remove contaminants. In the second step, the substrate is inserted into a vacuum chamber, and the air in said chamber is evacuated. In the third step, the substrate surface is bombarded with energetic ions to assist in the removal of residual hydrocarbons and surface oxides, and to activate the surface. <DEL-S DATE="20010724" ID="DEL-S-00001">Alter<DEL-E ID="DEL-S-00001"> <INS-S DATE="20010724" ID="INS-S-00001">After <INS-E ID="INS-S-00001">the substrate surface has been sputter-etched, a protective, abrasion-resistant coating is deposited by ion beam deposition. The ion beam-deposited coating may contain one or more layers. Once the chosen thickness of the coating has been achieved, the deposition process on the substrates is terminated, the vacuum chamber pressure is increased to atmospheric pressure, and the coated substrate products having improved abrasion-resistance are removed from the vacuum chamber. The coated products of this invention have utility as plastic sunglass lenses, ophthalmic lenses, bar codes scanner windows, and industrial wear parts that must be protected from scratches and abrasion.

A surface analysis apparatus includes a unit configured to bombard a sample surface with at least two types of ions having different sizes; a measurement device for measuring, with a time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometer, a mass spectrum of ions emitted from the sample surface; and an information processor outputting a difference between two mass spectra measured by bombardment of different types of ions.

A method for depositing a nanostructured coating comprising chromium or a copper-chromium mixture on a workpiece. The workpiece may comprise a hollowed structure such as a rocket or jet engine combustion chamber liner. The method comprises providing a magnetron and an external sputter target material comprising chromium or a copper-chromium composite and effecting a magnetron sputter deposition to deposit a substantially uniform nanostructured coating comprising said sputter target material on said workpiece. The method may include plasma enhancement wherein a filament is utilized to produce a plasma that effects an ion bombardment on the workpiece during the magnetron sputter deposition process. The invention also includes the nanostructured coatings deposited by these methods and workpieces coated thereby.

In one aspect of the invention is a method to construct plasma chambers with improved wall resistance to deterioration. In one embodiment of the invention, a chamber is made of an aluminum alloy having low concentrations of elements that form non-soluble, intermetallic particles to address coating/substrate issues, has swaged-in cooling tubes to reduce thermal stress by improving thermal resistance, and has a plurality of dielectric gaps to decrease ion bombardment.

The present invention generally provides methods and apparatuses that are adapted to form a high quality dielectric gate layer on a substrate. Embodiments contemplate a method wherein a metal plasma treatment process is used in lieu of a standard nitridization process to form a high dielectric constant layer on a substrate. Embodiments further contemplate an apparatus adapted to “implant” metal ions of relatively low energy in order to reduce ion bombardment damage to the gate dielectric layer, such as a silicon dioxide layer and to avoid incorporation of the metal atoms into the underlying silicon. In general, the process includes the steps of forming a high-k dielectric and then terminating the surface of the deposited high-k material to form a good interface between the gate electrode and the high-k dielectric material. Embodiments of the invention also provide a cluster tool that is adapted to form a high-k dielectric material, terminate the surface of the high-k dielectric material, perform any desirable post treatment steps, and form the polysilicon and/or metal gate layers.

A method for producing a zirconia-layered orthopedic implant component includes depositing zirconium onto the orthopedic implant component, thereby forming a zirconium-layered component, and converting at least a portion of the zirconium into a substantially monoclinic zirconia surface layer unaccompanied by a substantial underlying α-phase. A method for producing a zirconia-layered orthopedic implant component includes depositing zirconium onto the orthopedic implant component by ion bombardment and deposition in a vacuum to form a zirconium-layered component including an intermix zone at least 1000 Å thick and a zirconium layer about 3-5 μm thick, and heat treating the zirconium-layered component at a temperature of about 500-600° C. in an atmosphere containing oxygen.

A method for forming a semiconductor structure. The method includes providing a semiconductor structure including a semiconductor substrate. The semiconductor substrate includes (i) a top substrate surface which defines a reference direction perpendicular to the top substrate surface and (ii) a semiconductor body region. The method further includes implanting an adjustment dose of dopants of a first doping polarity into the semiconductor body region by an adjustment implantation process. Ion bombardment of the adjustment implantation process is in the reference direction. The method further includes (i) patterning the semiconductor substrate resulting in side walls of the semiconductor body region being exposed to a surrounding ambient and then (ii) implanting a base dose of dopants of a second doping polarity into the semiconductor body region by a base implantation process. Ion bombardment of the base implantation process is in a direction which makes a non-zero angle with the reference direction.

A method and an apparatus are disclosed for causing ion bombardment of the substrate during sputter deposition of an insulating or conducting material on a substrate (3) when using dual cathode or dual anode sputtering approaches. A novel electrical circuit including a center-tapped transformer is disclosed to permit a controllable potential to be applied to the substrate relative to the plasma potential, without the necessity of an additional power supply. Also disclosed are approaches which permit the use of an auxiliary biasing supply (8), either dc or high frequency ac, and which can permit continuous discharging of the surface through alternate ion and electron bombardment.