Importance

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Abstract

A method and apparatus is provided which produces a layer of material on a substrate by extracting ions from a laser ablation plume in a vacuum environment. In a basic embodiment, the apparatus includes a vacuum chamber containing a target material and a laser focused on the target to ablate the material and ionize a portion of the ablation plume. An accelerating grid within the vacuum chamber is charged to extract the ions from the plume and direct the ions onto a substrate to grow the layer. The basic embodiment has produced diamond-like carbon films on a clean, unseeded silicon substrate at deposition rates approaching 20 microns per hour. The diamond-like carbon films produced were of exceptional quality: uniform thickness with a surface roughness about 1 Angstrom; uniform index of refraction within the range of 1.5-2.5; resistivity greater than 40 megs ohms per centimeter; and a hard surface resistant to physical abuse. An enhanced embodiment includes multiple targets within the vacuum chamber and mechanisms to selectively produce ions from each target. Thus, layers of different materials or doped materials can be made on the substrate. Additionally, the enhanced embodiment includes a mechanism for making patterns or circuits within each layer. One version incorporates a mask within the ion fluence and ion optics to magnify the mask pattern onto the substrate. Another version uses ion optics to form an ion beam and deflection plates controlling the ion beam to write the desired pattern on the substrate.

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First Claim