Mike Simmons presents on In-House Application Lab work for Transparent Ultrabarrier films and High Power Impulse Magnetron Sputtering (HIPIMS)

Apr 29, 2019 | Technical Papers

Intellivation President Mike Simmons presents on work recently completed in the Intellivation Application Lab relating to Transparent Ultrabarrier films and High Power Impulse Magnetron Sputtering (HIPIMS). The presentation title is:
Improved coating properties of Cu and TiO2 coatings on PET web via High Power Impulse Magnetron Sputtering (HIPIMS) with positive voltage reversal.

The full abstract is:

As industries such as wearable devices and flexible electronics develop, new technologies are required in order to deposit high quality coatings on insulating and temperature sensitive substrates. Roll to roll web coating is frequently used to deposit coatings on polymer and glass web. High Power Impulse Magnetron Sputtering (HIPIMS) has shown many advantages over conventional magnetron sputtering which is commonly used to deposit metals, metal nitrides and metal oxides on polymer web. With HIPIMS, a fraction of the target material will be ionized while the ion energy distribution function will shift to energies about 10 times greater than those for DC discharges. However, this increase in ionization and energy will give only modest changes in coating properties on an unbiased substrate. With the addition of a positive voltage reversal pulse adjacent to the negative HIPIMS sputtering pulse, these ions can be accelerated towards the substrate providing energy for film nucleation and densification. In this study, an industrial scale (330 mm wide web) web coater was used to deposit TiO2 and Cu coatings as well as other metal nitride and metal oxide coatings on PET at room temperature. Increases in film density and changes in grain size can be clearly seen compared to DC or pulsed DC sputtering. The effect on the index of refraction, extinction coefficient and barrier properties are also investigated.

Authors: Mike Simmons, Frank Papa, Ivan Fernandez Martinez, Ambiorn Wennberg

Presenter: Mike Simmons

Mike Simmons Presents at the 2018 AIMCAL R2R Conference on Coating Properties Deposited by High Power Impulse Magnetron Sputtering

Oct 31, 2018 | Technical Papers

Intellivation President Mike Simmons and GP Plasma President Frank Papa Present at the 2018 AIMCAL R2R Conference, giving a paper entitled Coating Properties of Cu and TiO2 on Polymer Web Deposited by High Power Impulse Magnetron Sputtering With and Without Positive Voltage Reversal and Pulsed DC

The full abstract of the presentation is:

Improving the coating properties such as sheet resistance for copper and the index of refraction and structure for TiO2 are an important topic for low temperature coating on polymer web. Both types of coatings can be deposited by pulsed DC, but little can be done to influence the material properties as the energy of the deposited species is relatively low (around 5 eV). HIPIMS has been shown to increase both the ion fraction and energy of the sputtered species. Ion fractions range from 10-90% depending on the target material and the energy of both gas and metal ions can reach up to 50eV. By adding a positive voltage reversal pulse adjacent to the negative sputtering pulse, the metal and gas ions can be accelerated towards the substrate to influence the coating properties. This repulsion of ions from the target during the positive reversal pulse also results in an increase in deposition rate of up to 30% over conventional HIPIMS sputtering. In this study, we will examine thermal loading and deposition rate as well as the optical, electrical and morphologic properties of Cu and TiO2. All experiments are carried out on an industrial web coater.

Authors: Frank Papa, Mike Simmons, Ivan Fernandez Martinez

Presenters: Frank Papa, Mike Simmons

Mike Simmons presents Modular R2R Vacuum Coating System Platform for Pilot Scale Development and Production at the 2018 FLEX Conference in Monterey, California

Feb 14, 2018 | Technical Papers

Intellivation President Mike Simmons presents Modular R2R Vacuum Coating System Platform for Pilot Scale Development and Production at the 2018 FLEX Conference in Monterey, California.  The presentation abstract is:

Advances in high volume manufacturing technology have led to commercial production of ever-thinner polymer substrates and to the emergence of flexible glass and flexible ceramic substrates, all of which are candidate materials for vacuum web coating processes. Similarly, developments in applications including flexible electronics have led to new and more stringent processing requirements. These include particle management, substrate interleaves, thermal control, and increasingly complex multi-layered products which are often most efficiently produced by using different deposition techniques in a single web coater. In 2014, Intellivation developed the R2R series vacuum web coating tool platform to address these challenges. This paper reviews the modular equipment design and presents case study data from the R2R330 at the Intellivation Application Lab in Fort Collins, Colorado.

Mike Simmons presents A Method for Scaling Dynamic Deposition Rates at the 2017 AIMCAL R2R Conference in Tampa, FL

Oct 18, 2017 | Technical Papers

Intellivation President Mike Simmons presents A Method for Scaling Dynamic Deposition Rates Between Planar to Rotary Magnetrons, and Study of Heat Load Incident Upon Substrate for Each at the 2017 AIMCAL R2R Conference in Tampa, Florida.  The presentation abstract is:

Roll to roll manufacturing of many products utilize planar magnetron sputtering, rotary magnetron sputtering, or a combination thereof. In many cases the films deposited by these methods are applied to thermally sensitive substrates or other thermally sensitive coatings or devices that have been previously applied to those substrates, and oftentimes the motivation is to maximize the rate of deposition while avoiding thermal damage. This paper presents a method to scale target power density between planar and rotary magnetron sputter cathodes in a manner that is predictive of dynamic deposition rates, and presents case study data. The heat load incident upon the substrate is also measured for each technique and is compared, and the relationship between the target power density and the substrate heat load is shown. While the data presented is for a specific hardware set, the characterization methods are applicable to any equipment set and some scalable generalities are shown.