A practical sputter equipment simulation system for aluminum including surface diffusion model

We have developed a practical aluminum sputter deposition system which is composed of a trajectory calculation module using the Monte Carlo (MC) method, a surface diffusion calculation module, and a deposition profile module using a 'modified' QAS (quasi-axis-symmetrical) approximation. In the system, the string model is utilized as the common data structure for simplifying the interface. The simulated profiles (after adjustment of surface diffusion coefficient) agree with the experiments. The surface diffusion model is found to be indispensable for aluminum. The adjusted surface diffusion coefficient with the activation energy of 12.4 (kJ/mole) is found about one million times as large as the bulk at 573 K.