Areesys Technologies, Inc.

Creesense Microsystems Inc.

Albert Ting

Kai-An Wang

Hongwei Lu

Efrain A Velazquez

Xiaoyan Zhang

Daliang Wang

Craig W Marion

Efrain Velazquez

Michael Z Wong

Wen-Chieh Geoffrey Lee

Jingru Sun

A poling apparatus for poling a polymer thin film formed on a workpiece carried by a workpiece carrier. The workpiece has grounding electrodes and grounding pads located at edges, and a thin film covering the grounding electrodes but exposing the grounding pads. The workpiece carrier has carrier electrodes located around the workpiece and inside grounding ports at the bottom. The poling apparatus includes, in a poling chamber, a poling source generating a plasma, a Z-elevator to raise the workpiece carrier toward the poling source using the grounding ports, and grounding mechanisms including downwardly biased electrical contacts which, when the workpiece carrier is raised by the Z-elevator, connect the grounding pads of the workpiece with the carrier electrodes, to ground the workpiece. The poling apparatus additionally includes preparation platform and transfer platform with conveyer systems with rollers and Z-elevators to move the workpiece carrier in and out of the poling chamber.

Method and apparatus for poling polymer thin films

A poling apparatus for poling a polymer thin film formed on a workpiece carried by a workpiece carrier. The workpiece has multiple grounding electrodes, grounding pads located at its edges, and a polymer thin film including multiple areas each covering only one grounding electrode. The poling apparatus includes, in a poling chamber, a poling source generating a plasma, a shadow mask below the poling source, and a Z-elevator to raise the workpiece carrier toward the shadow mask and poling source. When the workpiece in the workpiece carrier is raised to contact the underside of the shadow mask, multiple openings of the shadow mask expose only the corresponding multiple thin film areas of the workpiece to the plasma; meanwhile, conductive grounding terminals on the underside of the shadow mask electrically connect the grounding pads of the workpiece with carrier electrodes on the workpiece carrier, to ground the workpiece.

A corona polarization (also denoted 'poling') process and associated apparatus polarizes a ferroelectric polymer thin film while monitoring and evaluating a substrate current whose magnitude, slope and noise profile (Barkhausen noise) varies in accordance with phase transformation processes of crystallites within the film and, thereby, provides an indication of the polarization status. The electric current flowing through the microstructures of the thin film can be modeled by an equivalent circuit, within which electrical charges stored in the respective microstructures are denoted by a plurality of discrete components (e.g., capacitors). Alternatively, the process can be modeled in terms of a hysteresis loop of polarization vs. electric field, corresponding to the availability of recombination sites on the thin-film surface. By comparing the measured substrate current to the result derived from the equivalent circuit, the major processing parameters such as poling current and voltage can be adjusted via an in-situ manner throughout the corona poling process and an accurate process endpoint can be established. As a consequence, a ferroelectric thin film is fabricated that has an enhanced piezoelectric effect yet minimized aging problems.

Controlled thin-film ferroelectric polymer corona polarizing system and process

A deposition system includes a magnetron sputter deposition source that includes a backing frame that includes a window and a closed loop around the window. The backing frame includes inside surfaces towards the window, one or more sputtering targets mounted on inside surfaces of the backing frame, and one or more magnets mounted on outside surfaces of the backing frame. The one or more sputtering targets include sputtering surfaces that define internal walls of the window. The one or more magnets can produce a magnetic field near the one or more sputtering surfaces. A substrate includes a deposition surface oriented towards the window in the backing frame. The deposition surface receives sputtering material(s) from the one or more sputtering targets.

Film deposition apparatus with low plasma damage and low processing temperature

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San Jose, CA, United States of America

Albert Ting