Practical and low-cost solution for the temperature control of a substrate heater for thin film deposition

The paper focuses on finding a suitable practical approach to measure and maintain the temperature of the substrate at a desired temperature, imposed by the type of the sputtering and the type of the desired thin film structure. The resulting solution is suitable for a wide range of experimental equipment built for the instable reactive magnetron sputtering process. The aim is to increase the stability and to enhance the repeatability of the process in discussion. By stabilizing and controlling the temperature of the substrate, the presented system contributes to the complex task of sustaining a controlled environment for a successful sputtering. The paper presents in detail the design steps of a simple resistive substrate heater assembly. The main topics include the implementation of the control mechanism on a low-cost embedded platform, featuring wireless connectivity and data transfer trough different communication channels using TCP packets, as well as the incorporation of IoT services.