Unique ion gun for sputtering, cleaning and ion implantation

A unique ion gun with a hollow cathode is being designed for sputtering, cleaning and ion implantation work for solid state devices. It has been shown that by changing the polarity of the accelerating potential and cutting the gas supply, this gun can be effectively used as an electron gun for simultaneous annealing. Some characteristics like ion energy distribution, dependence of ion current on inert gas pressure and beam size, etc. have been discussed in detail for both electrons and ions. The importance of the gun with respect to ion implantation, simultaneous annealing of the implanted impurities and depth profiles, etc. have also been discussed in detail. (auth.)