> Hot Stages. Substrate rotation - Substrate heating - Substrate RF & DC bias - Z-Shift - Quick release wafer holder - Water cooled Our standard hot stage, shown below, is mounted on a CF40 flange and includes: stage rotation, quick release substrate holder, substrate heater (1000C element temperature, 700C substrate temp), RF / DC stage bias, water cooled outer heat shields and Z-shift movement for wafer transfer. Our standard substrate sizes are 4", 5" and 6", but we can accommodate any size as a special. Our standard hot stage mounts onto a CF40 flange, but we specialise in producing bespoke hot stages, and can modify our standard hot stage design to suit any flange size. Although our full hot stage includes rotation, RF / DC substrate bias, substrate heating with water cooled heat shields, quick release substrate holder and Z-shift movement, our stages can be configured to suit our customers specific requirements. It is therefore possible to specify just the components of the hot stage that are required, from for example a very basic hot stage with just rotation and heating, or static stage with heating and RF/DC bias, or any other combination. Our stages are fully shielded and insulated and fitted with an N type coaxial connector, enabling a DC bias or RF bias to be applied to the substrate platen. This bias can be run prior to deposition, for substrate cleaning / light etching, or during deposition to modify film properties. For very simple static hot stages our ceramic topped elements are most suitable. Please refer to our ceramic topped elements page for more details on designs and configurations. |
If high element temperatures in excess of 1000C are required, then a high temperature version of our standard hot stage is required. This high temperature hot stage has a graphite element, and requires larger power feedthroughs to cope with the high current load that the graphite element requires. Our graphite elements are limited to 500C if O2 is present, but a special SiC coated graphite element can be used if O2 compatibility is required. We also produce bespoke very high temperature furnaces for heating small samples up to 2000C. These vacuum and inert atmosphere furnaces have an all graphite hot stage and so are not suitable for use with O2 above 500C. The furnace heats a graphite crucible, i.d.60.50mm x 80mm, to 2000C. The furnace is vertically orientated with the crucible loaded from the top. The main chamber body and all flanges and power feedthroughs are water cooled enabling long operation at maximum temperature without overheating. To power and control our hot stage heaters and our vacuum furnaces, we have developed a range of heater temperature controllers and power supplies. Details of these are shown below. |
