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Lab - 3-Spin Coating

This document provides instructions for a lab session on spin coating polymer thin films. Students will learn how to use a spin coater and investigate the effects of spin speed and solution concentration on film quality and thickness. Safety equipment like lab coats and eye protection must be worn. The two main parameters that affect the film - spin speed and solution concentration - will be varied to prepare samples for measuring thickness in the next lab using an elipsometer.

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Sam Stide
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160 views3 pages

Lab - 3-Spin Coating

This document provides instructions for a lab session on spin coating polymer thin films. Students will learn how to use a spin coater and investigate the effects of spin speed and solution concentration on film quality and thickness. Safety equipment like lab coats and eye protection must be worn. The two main parameters that affect the film - spin speed and solution concentration - will be varied to prepare samples for measuring thickness in the next lab using an elipsometer.

Uploaded by

Sam Stide
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Emerging Materials and Processes (Academic Year 2021/22)

WEAR PROTECTIVE GEAR!! (LAB COAT; EYE PROTECTION GLASSES AND


GLOVES)

Lab_3 Spin coating.

During this laboratory session, you will learn how to use spin coating machine to
prepare polymer thin film. Additionally, the effect of the spin speed and solution
concentration on the film’s quality will be visually investigated.

Spin-coating is an important technique in the deposition of thin polymer films and


is extensively used in both in academia and semiconductor industries. As the polymer
thin film is fabricated solely by spin coating, this has the greatest potential to influence
final thin film properties if the process is not optimised correctly. There are a number of
parameters that are likely to affect the quality and thickness of the thin film. The two
main parameters in spin coating are:

a. Polymer solution concentration.


b. Final spin coating speed.

However, the following parameters can have minor effects in the film properties (Which
you are not investigating in this lab but important to know):

a. Spread speed (An initial low speed spin which distributes the solution
across the substrate).
b. Static or dynamic spin coating. (Static – the solution is dispensed before
the substrate starts spinning. Dynamic – the solution is dispensed once
the substrate has begun spinning).
c. Amount of polymer solution dispensed.
d. Acceleration up to final coating speed.
e. Substrate material and size.
f. Surface of the substrate (e.g. Electrically neutral or charged)
g. Solution temperature (the solution temperature can have an effect on the
evaporation of solvents during the spinning process and hence on the
properties of the final film).
h. Humidity in the room and room temperature.

Exercise 1: Deposition of thin film from the solution prepared in Lab_2

Objective: During this exercise, you will learn how to prepare a polymer thin film using
the spin coating technique.

Equipment: spin coater and a pair of tweezers

Consumables: silicon/glass substrates; polymer solution(s) (prepared in the lab_3)

Personal Protective Equipment (PPE): Lab coat, Gloves, Safety glasses

Lab Procedure_1:

1. Turn ON the spin-coating machine


2. Turn the vacuum power switch ON
3. Open the lid
4. Place the substrate on the chuck and ensure that chuck is holding the substrate
5. Close the lid and make sure it is properly close
6. Select the appropriate/required spinning programme.
7. Take the required amount of the polymer solution in a pipette
8. Drop the solution through the slit onto the silicon/glass substrate
9. Start spin coater by pressing “Start” button
10. Once spinning stops, wait for 1-2 min and then take the substrate and place it in
a sample box.
11. Clean the spin-coater using acetone/methanol
12. Switch OFF the power to the spin-coater.
13. Leave the working area clean and tidy.

Exercise 2: Investigating the effect of the spin speed and solution concentration
on the quality/thickness of the film.

Objective: During this exercise, you will learn how spin speed and solution
concentration effect deposited layer quality (uniformity) and thickness. Samples
prepared during this exercise will be used during the next lab where the thickness of the
deposited films will be measure using elipsometer.

Equipment: spin coater and a pair of tweezers

Consumables: silicon/glass substrates; polymer solutions (prepared in the lab_3)

Personal Protective Equipment (PPE): Lab coat, Gloves, Safety glasses

Lab Procedure_2

1. For each PVAc concentration prepare samples using different spin speeds (from
1000 rpm to 10000 rpm).
2. Use silicon substrates for spin coating
3. Label each sample.
4. Every sample will be visually checked and the observation will be discussed
5. Put the samples in sample boxes provided.
6. In the next lab, we are going to measure the film thickness using elipsometer.

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