SCS Parylene CVD

Owned by Wirth, Justin C
Last updated: Dec 04, 2023 by Nicholas J Glassmaker

2024-12-20 to 2025-01-02: Reduced Holiday Operations

Dear Birck Research Community,

The Purdue winter recess begins effective Friday afternoon December 20th and concludes Thursday morning, January 2. The university is officially closed during this time. As we have done in past years, the Birck Nanotechnology Center will remain available for research but will be unstaffed and hazardous gasses will be unavailable. Lab work may otherwise proceed, though any fume hood work must be done with someone else present in the same laboratory or cleanroom bay (the "buddy" system). Click the link above to get more detail about equipment conditions and rules.


Refer to the Material and Process Compatibility page for information on materials compatible with this tool.
Equipment Status: Set as UP, PROBLEM, or DOWN, and report the issue date (MM/DD) and a brief description. Italicized fields will be filled in by BNC Staff in response to issues. See Problem Reporting Guide for more info.

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Issue Date and Description


Estimated Fix Date and Comment


Responding Staff

/wiki/spaces/BNCWiki/pages/6236584


iLab Name: Parylene CVD Furnace
iLab Kiosk: BRK Growth Core
FIC: Babak Ziaie
Owner: Joon Park
Location: Cleanroom - D Bay
Maximum Wafer Size: 8"/200 mm

Overview

General Description

The Parylene deposition system model 2010 is a vacuum system used for the vapor deposition of the Parylene polymer type C and N onto a variety of substrates. The coating is truly conformal. The system consists of Vaporizer, Pyrolysis main furnace, Deposition chamber, Cold trap, and Vacuum pump.

If you want to deposit metal on Parylene, you have to bake your sample overnight at 75°C using the vacuum oven in BRK2031 after parylene deposition.

Specifications

Base pressure is less than 10-20 mTorr. Typical Process Settings:

Type C:

  • Vapor Heater Temp.: 175C
  • Pyrolysis Heater Temp.: 690C
  • Chamber Gauge Temp.: 135C
  • Pressure: Base pressure + 15 Vacuum Units (~35 mTorr)
  • Deposition Rate: 5um/hour

Type N:

  • Vapor Heater Temp.: 160C
  • Pyrolysis Heater Temp.: 650C
  • Chamber Gauge Temp.: 135C
  • Pressure: Base pressure + 55 Vacuum Units (~60-75 mTorr)
  • Deposition Rate: 0.75um/hour

Technology Overview

There are three main steps in the process:

  • Vaporizer: Parylene is vaporized from its solid dimer phase inside the vaporizer.
  • Pyrolysis furnaces: It's a high temperature furnace (> 600C) which converts the dimer to monomer phase.
  • Polymerization: Polymerization happens at room temperature inside the chamber.

In summary, the system converts Parylene dimer to a gaseous monomer. Upon deposition the material polymerizes at room temperature onto the substrate. The coating thickness depends on the amount of dimer loaded in the vaporizer


Sample Requirements and Preparation


Standard Operating Procedure

SOP (04/08/2022)

Questions & Troubleshooting

Can I use a Parylene as a mask for a silicon KOH etch?
Although Parylene itself is chemically resistant, the adhesion between silicon and the Parylene layer will be significantly degraded in hot KOH. The mask will separate from the silicon, making it a poor choice for this application.

What are some of the peculiarities of parylene?

Papers show paryleneC becomes crystalline, tensile & cracks when baked above 80C in atmosphere, simple tests on hot plates confirm this finding.

 

Process Library

References

Parylene Types - SCS (Internal Resource)

Useful Parameters for Deposition (Internal Resource)