I wish to deposit gold thin film on PET substrates using magnetron sputtering. Since these substrates cant sustain high temperatures, i like to know whether these substrates can be mettalised using sputtering.
Dear Eshwar, no problem to coat PET or Kapton by sputtering The temperatureof the plasma is difficult to define in general, the electrons, ions and neutral species all usually have different temperatures, there is no thermal equilibrium. In fact the bombardement of the plastic substrate with all those species introduces heat, and from a practical point of view, this will lead to an increase of the substrate temperature. So if the current in your plasma discharge is not too large, and the deposition time not too extended, then plastic substrates can be coated by sputterinf. Eventually, if you observe unwanted heating, try to deposit in several short pulses to obtain the desired thickness. Good luck, Dirk
Dear Eshwar,
The plasma temperature has different meaning. I think you are talking about substrate temperature, which depends up on applied power and distance between the gun and the substrate.
Yes, you can deposit gold on polymeric substrates but make sure the substrate temperature is less than M.P. of the polymeric substrate.
As Harish mentioned your substrate temperature is affected by several parameters. If you encounter problems due to unintentional heating during the deposition you can experiment with increasing the target to substrate distance and/or lowering the sputter power.
It can also make a big difference how well your substrate is thermally connected to the holder which can act as a heatsink and help keep the temperature lower.
Thank you all for information.
@Harish Barshilia, Will keep substrate temperature at ~30 oC. I like to know if there is any drastic increase in substrate temperature due to ion bombardment. We have tested that PET can sustain temperature up to ~150 oC. We are concerned with chamber contamination if substrate temperature goes high.
@Sebastian Siol, will try to experiment with increasing target to substrate distance and low sputter power.
Dear Eshwar,
In our sputtering we have a thermocouple behind the substrate. For long deposition times (above 30min) and high power (300 W) the measured temperature never went above 60 ºC. Although the actual temperature at the substrate is higher, I bet it will never reach such 150 ºC limit.
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