Quality enhancement of copper oxide thin film synthesized under elevated gravity acceleration by two-axis spin coating

Abstract

Two-Axis spin coating as a new modified technique is employed to enhance the quality and surface leveling of thin films. The modified technology utilizes a synthetic centrifugal force perpendicular to the surface which generates an elevated gravity acceleration while spreading the coating on the entire wafer surface. In this paper, copper acetate sol-gel is coated by conventional and Two-Axis spin coating techniques. The coated layers are sintered in an air furnace at 275 °C. The fabricated layers are characterized by GIXRD, EDX, AFM and SEM devices. Wettability and Surface Free Energy (SFE) of sintered films using the contact angle technique are measured, and evaluated by the Owens-Wendt method. XRD and EDX spectra show a higher intensity of copper oxide phase using Two-Axis spin coating technology. AFM micrographs showed an improvement in the surface leveling within the Two-Axis spin coated layer. A comparison between the SFE of conventional and Two-Axis spin coated layers shows an increase in SFE of the layer synthesized under 200g artificial gravity acceleration.