Thomas Schütte, Jan-Peter Urbach, Peter Neiß, Marius Radloff, Hokuto Kikuchi, PLASUS GmbH, Mering, Germany
Successful process control of deposition processes requires real-time data from a variety of sensors. Current process control systems cover typically only a single sensor technique resulting in the use of a variety of individual tools to establish a comprehensive process control. This is a drawback for the use in many applications since each control tool requires individual costs and footprint as well as individual resources for system integration and maintenance.
The EMICON system overcomes these issues by combing different sensor techniques for plasma and product in a single system in a modular architecture: multi-channel spectroscopic plasma monitoring with unprecedented time resolution, broadband reflectometry for real-time in-situ layer thickness measurement, electrical pulse curve measurement od voltage and current in HIPIMS and pulsed plasma application, signal input from other sensors like plasma (V-I) probes, lambda probes, ion meter probes, etc. The acquired data from all sensors are processed simultaneously in the EMICON system and can be combined and evaluated for controlling the plasma and product parameters like density of reactive gas species, ion density, layer thickness or color in real-time and simultaneously. This results in a reliable and enhanced production stability and improved product quality at reasonable costs and resources.
This presentation gives an overview of applications where comprehensive process control has already been realized with the EMICON system. Examples of combining the sensor techniques plasma monitoring, electrical measurements and photometric measurements followed by real-time data processing in demanding application such as metallic and reactive sputtering, HIPIMS and PECVD coating processes are presented covering tribological, photovoltaic and architectural glass coating applications.