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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.

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)

SCS Parylene CVD