1. Target preparation: Select a suitable target, usually metal, alloy or ceramic. The preparation of the target includes cutting into suitable shapes (such as disks and rectangles) and polishing to obtain a smooth surface, and ensuring the purity and quality of the target meet the requirements.
2. Establishment of vacuum environment: the target and substrate to be plated are placed in a vacuum chamber, and vacuum is pumped by a vacuum pump to reduce the indoor air pressure to the required vacuum degree. Establishing high vacuum environment is the key to ensure effective PVD process.
3. Cleaning and pretreatment: Before starting deposition, it is usually necessary to clean and pretreat the substrate to remove surface pollutants and oxides, so as to ensure good adhesion and film quality. Pretreatment methods can include mechanical polishing, solvent cleaning, electron beam or ion cleaning, etc.
4. target evaporation or sputtering: in the vacuum chamber, atoms or ions on the target surface are released by heating the target or applying ion beam bombardment. During evaporation, atoms on the target surface are heated and evaporated; In the sputtering process, atoms or ions on the target surface are stripped by ion beam bombardment or arc discharge.
5. Deposition to form a film: evaporated or sputtered atoms or ions are deposited on the surface of the substrate in a condensed way, and a film is gradually formed. In the process of deposition, the parameters such as target power, deposition rate, deposition time and deposition angle should be controlled to control the thickness, composition and structure of the film.
6. Post-treatment and testing: After deposition, some post-treatment steps, such as annealing, polishing or coating sealing, may be needed to improve the film performance. The film can also be tested and evaluated, such as thickness measurement, surface morphology analysis, chemical composition analysis and performance test.